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Fans of SpVgg Greuther Fürth are taking a stand against racism. © Daniel Löb/dpa
A North Rhine-Westphalia reporting center has been documenting racist incidents in football since July 2022. There are also dozens of entries for professional games. One phenomenon in particular stands out.
Frankfurt/Main – Julian Green stopped listening. The 28-year-old ignored the calls of the “full posts,” as his coach Alexander Zorniger called them, who racially insulted the SpVgg Greuther Fürth player during the cup game at Halleschen FC.
Only after the win did Green tell us what he heard. And again the same process could be observed: an outcry, expressions of solidarity, investigations by the German Football Association. Another isolated case? Or is there an increasing tendency towards racist attacks in football, as is the case in parts of society?
“It is clear that every case is one too many,” says DFB spokesman Michael Morsch. The association’s statistics show a decreasing number of racist or discriminatory incidents in the professional leagues in recent years. In the 2016/2017 Bundesliga season there were 35 entries, 11 in the following year. After that, according to DFB statistics, the numbers remained at a consistently low level – between one case in the 2018/2019 season and three cases in the last season.
However, a different picture emerges at the still relatively new reporting center for discrimination in football in North Rhine-Westphalia. “One development that we are currently noticing is an increasing number of Hitler salutes being observed and reported,” reports project manager Elena Müller from the state with the most professional football clubs. Since July 2022, the pilot project has documented a total of 211 reports of racist incidents, 95 from professional football.
“In the vast majority of cases it is a matter of misconduct by fans,” says Müller. “We don’t just record verbal or physically abusive incidents.” Racist and right-wing symbols on stickers, clothing or banners are also documented, as well as – unlike the DFB sports court – discriminatory posts on social media.
Inhibition threshold on the internet is significantly lower
Dayot Upamecano and Mathys Tel (both FC Bayern), Benjamin Henrichs (RB Leipzig), as well as the U21 national players Youssoufa Moukoko (Borussia Dortmund) and Jessic Ngankam (Eintracht Frankfurt) have also reported racism on social networks in recent months. The inhibition threshold on the Internet appears to be significantly lower. As with Green, the associations and clubs said in all cases that the hostility would be condemned “in the strongest possible terms”. Is that enough?
According to Daniela Wurbs from the advice center “Kick In!” for inclusion in football, more is needed: “Distancing yourself in quick statements without action follows, above all, helps the perpetrators and leaves those potentially affected deprived of the credibility of the commitment and security in the game We have doubts about the stadium.” Wurbs demands that more awareness needs to be raised. “It’s about players, officials and employees who have to change structures,” she says. “German professional football is mostly white and male at the management level.”
Angry: “Stand up and say: That’s not possible!”
Fürth coach Zorniger, on the other hand, particularly took the spectators of the Halle game to task. “The stadium is at 95 percent capacity. There were enough people there who could have intervened,” said the trainer and demanded: “Stand up and say: That’s not possible!” Because: “If we don’t do that, then the brown bastards who also sit in the Bundestag will get more and more top water. This simply cannot happen.”
According to Michael Gabriel, growing popularity for the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) has so far had little impact on the situation in the curves. He heads the fan projects coordination office at the German Sport Youth (dsj), which has been supporting the German football fan scene for several decades. Accordingly, the AfD’s themes and goals do not find any noticeable response. “The party wants to weaken democratic principles, the fans not only defend themselves against racism and right-wing extremism, but also fight, among other things, for more say,” emphasizes the head of the fan projects coordination office. There is hardly any overlap.
Inclusion expert Wurbs also sees a growing commitment: “In recent years, numerous clubs and fan scenes in Germany have increasingly created contact points for those affected by discrimination in football,” reports the “Kick-In” project manager. The positions are primarily active around match days, but not only. “UEFA is now planning to use these structures for EURO 2024 and to set up such contact points for those affected for the first time as part of the tournament.” dpa
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