Football racists need education not prison, says German researcher, who wants tougher punishment for clubs
- University of Bochum’s Lorenz Narku Laing says football has ‘tolerated racism for decades’
- Officials should think about awarding games to teams that have players who are racially abused by rival fans
Football has turned a blind eye for too long on racism, according to a German researcher who has called for tougher sanctions against clubs while offenders should be treated in a different way.
Lorenz Narku Laing, a racism researcher from the Protestant University of Bochum, said the issue had “tolerated for decades” and become “almost normalised” within football.
He said officials needed to think about tougher sanctions for clubs, and suggested considering whether “matches should be abandoned and ruled a defeat by forfeit for the racist fan blocks”.
Germany is hosting the Euro 2024 tournament in the summer and the nation’s football federation DFB launched an anti-racism campaign in March. The world governing body Fifa plans a resolution on racism at its congress in Bangkok next month.
But there have been various incidents of racism over the past months, especially in Italy and Spain.
Last week, Italy international Francesco Acerbi was cleared by a sports court from having racially abused Napoli player Juan Jesus, who said he was “discouraged” by the outcome.
