By Shy’Ana Thomas
With some of the biggest soccer tournaments happening over the past month, there has s been a lot to unpack. The Euros started on June 14 and Copa America started on June 20, just six days apart. Having some of the most successful national teams make it past group stages in both tournaments and history was made in the process. Spain and Argentina took the wins in the finals versus England and Colombia, which had fans around the world on the edge of their seats. These finals were a surprise to everyone watching, with most people thinking France and their star man Kylian Mbappé were gonna make it to the final. Some people even thought it was finally coming home for England after the unfortunate event in the last Euros. But what is the problem with this year’s Euros and Copa America?
In this sport, there have been problems with racial discrimination for years but it feels like little has been done. In both tournaments, there has been an outburst of racial abuse shown to players who are mostly all players of color. When it gets to big tournaments like this every four years, there is passion that is heavily shown by fans. Of course, people want their country to take home the silverware and be celebrated. However, it becomes a problem when poor behavior is shown when things don’t go right.
Just like the Qatar 2022 World Cup, there were many fun moments. But there were also going to be bad ones like racist chants and comments made by players and fans. That behavior was repeated in both tournaments starting with the Euros. A lot of the national teams in today’s soccer are dominated by players of color. The best example is the France and England national teams that were predominantly white in the 1998 World Cup and further back. Now it’s a lot of players with African and Caribbean descent that play for those countries. For England, they have nine plus players that are Black and four in the starting lineup. When they don’t perform well in games that could take them to the next stage, that’s when racial abuse starts coming from fans.
Players like Bukayo Saka, who is Nigerian, received many comments from fans saying things such as “Go back to your country” and “Monkey,” while also being spammed with GIFs of monkeys on his Instagram account. Another player named Jude Bellingham, who is half-Kenyan, started getting blamed for the results of the game and becoming a scapegoat to the English media. If you look back at the 2020 Euros it’s really no different with the abuse and it’s a continued cycle that’s becoming normalized. Not only are players being attacked but Black fans also do not feel safe when watching these matches in a local pub.
Now for Spain, there are two young Black players by the name of Nico Williams, who is Ghanaian, and Lamine Yamal who is Guinan and Moroccan. Yamal was met with racist and Islamophobic comments from his fans telling him to eat pork-based food that is forbidden in Islam. For Williams, it was racist comments with the n-word used on social media.
This left many people not understanding how these comments were being made when Spain won the final and the two players they’re abusing were mostly the reason they made it. But even non-Black players on the team show micro aggression to Black players on different teams. The Spain versus France semi-final was labeled “controversial” to some because of behavior by Spanish players. Spain center-back Nacho Fernandez received lots of backlash for Violent Conduct against French player Randal Kolo Muani. Fernandez (Professionally known as Nacho) was seen smashing an already-down Kolo Muanis’s face into the ground and not being booked or fined for his behavior. Lots of Spain fans took to the internet to make insensitive jokes about the situation, comparing it to the tragic death of George Floyd.
Even in Copa America, there have been problems with racial abuse mostly coming from Argentina. In the first match of the tournament, it was Argentina Versus Canada. After the match Canadian player Moise Bombito faced online racial abuse for making contact with star Argentinian player Lionel Messi’s ankle. But that’s not all coming from Argentina, the final that was Argentina versus Colombia ended with victory for the Argentines once again.
While celebrating Chelsea, midfielder Enzo Fernándes put a video on his Instagram of him and his teammates chanting a racist chant about the France national team that they also used in the 2022 World Cup. This chant was made when they beat France in the final. In this chant, they said “They play for France, but their parents are from Angola. Their mother is from Cameroon while their father is from Nigeria. But their passport says French.” Fans online were upset as to why the Argentines were coming for the France team once again after playing a completely different country. This video reached many different social media platforms and also made its way to not only the France team players but also other Black players. Three of Fernández’s teammates who have immigrant parents unfollowed him and French Barcelona right back Jules Koundé made comments on X. The French Football Federation is filing a legal complaint on this situation, and fans are now asking Messi to apologize on behalf of his team.
Now the only questions being asked are “What could change these behaviors with racial abuse?” For starters that can be FIFA pushing harder punishments on fans and players when situations like this happen such as more fines and more bans. Another thing that can happen is the captain/star players of the team shedding light on the situation. Players like Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have the power to say something and people listen. Messi is the best example of this with his teammates having so much respect for him and also doing whatever he says. If he apologizes like everyone is asking and is more on hand when his teammates and fans lash out in this way, it could help put an end to the racial abuse that plagues the international soccer community.
