Racism In Football (Soccer) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Racism In Football (Soccer) - Essay Example Such an understanding is not only important for those who love or those who are a part of the game but also for those who are students of sociology, popular culture, and even human resource management. The literature on the topic is quite varied and ranges from academic studies made of the salaries given to various players along with their race and individual performance to reports of racism given by players who have been in the field for many years. For example, Moran (2000) presents an article which discusses the presence of racism in football despite the prevalence of anti-racist initiatives within the game. He does this by presenting evidence in relation to himself and others who have faced racism. He also gives the various challenges which black players have to face due to the presence of racist behaviour and suggests that there are different forms of racism against players (Moran, 2000). His ideas of economic and salary based discrimination is supported by the study done by Szymanski (2000) who is an economist at Imperial College. This study came to the result that football clubs have discriminated against black players in more ways than one. The comparison of the salaries of black players with white players is certainly an indicator of that. Clubs are also shown to undervalue their black players even though the performance of black players is better than what their wages get them. Clubs such as Scunthorpe United and Preston North End are two of the main culprits in this regard (Szymanski, 2000). Of course the problem is not only limited to black players since British Asian footballers also face the issue of discrimination against them at the professional level. Burdsey (2004) examines the ways in which British Asian footballers perceive racism as a factor which influences their under-representation in the professional leagues. He argues that problems of