An Investigation Into the Structural Inequalities in Football: How Power Networks of White
Abstract
The aim of this piece of research is to ascertain the structural inequalities which have led to the lack of representation for Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups in positions of power within football as an institution. Further analysis will be paid to how the reproduction of such values elicited within institutionally embedded networks has been reproduced within networks of white fan support. These seem to have developeddiscriminatory categories which harbour the alienation of BME groups and restrict participation in the field. Theoretical elements from Critical Race Theory, Bourdieu and Actor-Network Theory were compiled and infused to understand how this process of saturating racisms within multiple tiers of influence occurred. Qualitative interviews were cross referenced with secondary analysis to establish that socially constructed notions of cultural distinctiveness had refrained BME groups from exercising mobility in various tiers of football as a network.Therefore greater representation and cultural awareness,to avoid the continuous impact and influence of white power networks on modern constructs of race, are suggested to remedy such entrenched beliefs.
Contents
Introduction 3
Literature Review 7
Introduction 7
A review of racisms and their countenance in modern football 10
Utilising social theory to enable the understanding of the interactive
and occupying role of social networks, racism, power and mobility in 19
organisations
Methods 31
Introduction 31
Qualitative Research 32
Sampling 36
Participants 37
Findings 38
Discussion 41
Conclusion 44
Bibliography 47
Appendices
Appendix I 54
Appendix II 55
Appendix III 56
Introduction
Sport and football in particular has the ability to construct and reproduce social divisions, whilst also manipulating prejudices and beliefs surrounding groups of ethnic minorities (Burdsey, 2007). Accordingly football has become an increasingly prevalent area of focus due to its widespread appeal generating a following from a variety of social groups through domestic, continental and global competitions and leagues. Football as an institution not only provides a source of identification and a sense of belonging through team support but also individual role models, many of these from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups. However, what has become increasingly more evident is the stark contrast between the number of players from BME backgrounds, a quantity which can be regarded as representative of general inclusion in modern society, and the numbers who make the transition within the hierarchy of football, such as management, executive directors and board representatives. For instance, figures have reported that a quarter of players within all English football leagues are black (Kessel, 2010) yet there are currently only four black managers and one black chief executive (Conn, 2009).This can be acknowledged as structural inequalities which, as explained in Critical Race Theory (CRT), unless altered can sustain the ‘status-quo’ of racial privileges in employment and subsequently marginalise ethnic groups (Hunter and Swan, 2007).
It can be ascertained that a lack of role models, mentors and an under-representative board within the governing Football Association, which has until recently been exclusively comprised of middle aged white men, has diminished a cultural awareness that is vital to encouraging participation and establishing cohesion which legislation such as the Race Relations Amendment Act (RRAA) has sought to promote. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) states that there are ‘obligatory points of passages’ in which actors within an institution must envelop, such as the RRAA, in order to obtain and substantiate their identity and commitmentwithin that network (Hunter and Swan, 2007). It can therefore be argued that unless the Football network is actively pursuing equality strategies actors may continue to be oblivious to issues of institutionalised racism. Furthermore, given the rise of incidences within the last few months, the high profile nature of the players and senior administrative figures involved attracting increased media scrutiny, the actions of these role models can inflict or reinforce negative stereotypes or actions if they are not properly reprimanded.
Gilroy argues that to truly understand the politics of race it is necessary to map the “changing contours of racist ideologies” (1993: 20), the semantic field in which they operate and the fractures and discontinuities. Therefore to fully comprehend racial interaction within football it is important to consider the changes in racisms and how they function in the different tiers of the institution, from governing bodies to fan support. The use of racisms in a plural form is necessary due to the multiple discriminatory themes which are applied to different racial constructs which elicit disparate experiences and restrictions faced by a variety of social groups and therefore a single type of racism can not exist. Subsequently, an evolving sphere of influence emerges as wider social relations and local political ideologies must be considered to grasp the effect that ruptures in social solidarity can have on relationships in football and vice versa.
Furthermore, it seems that it is necessary to examine how race relations within football are often transmitted and decipher the influences on the decoding process by audiences, which may fluctuate throughout various cultural settings. As football is generally seen as a working class sport (Archer and Bouillon, 1982) it may be that attitudes deriving from these groups influence fan culture. The social dispositions obtained and regulated through society, of which racisms can be located within, can be understood through Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘habitus’, which is the accumulated ideals formed from past and present circumstances of the individuals (Maton, 2008), and ‘field’, which can be understood as the multiple spheres of influence that create and maintain rules of behaviour and attitudes surrounding a social space such as football and the local cultures which influence it. Assessing the nature of a dominant habitus in football will illuminate how BME groups can be alienated and dissuaded from participation, leading to a reproduction of traditional white norms.
Therefore the theoretical groundings of CRT, which emphasises the importance of personal experiences of marginalised groups (Hylton, 2009), allow for the interviews conducted with BME individuals both within football and anti-racism campaigns to confront a notion of ‘race-neutrality’ to unearth their experiences, concerns and remedial suggestions. Actor-Network Theory will allow for the consideration of football as a hierarchical institution, which without reflection on enhancing equality and management opportunities for ethnic groups through legislative action and cultural awareness, networks will continue to focus on issues such as institutional racism as mere racialised body counts (Hunter and Swan, 2007). I will attempt to explain how it is possible for the reproduction of dominant white groups within football institutions to remain unequivocally unchallenged and subsequently propose appropriate methods for change. Bourdieu’s notions of ‘field’ and ‘habitus’ will inform enquires of the complex paradigms of social change and how within the fluid social arenas, dominant forces could be reconstructed to renovate the established hierarchy of certain groups in institutions, whilst also critically assessing the social and cultural factors that originally act to enforce their positioning and therefore the different layers in which racism is reproduced, from street level to employment discrimination. Methods used will therefore be grounded in the basis of epistemology, where knowledge into the functioning aspects of dominance and marginalisation of social actors and their personal experiences is mandatory for greater understanding.
Literature Review
Introduction
The term ‘institutional racism’ was originally coined in the Macpherson Report, which offered the following definition:-
The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people (The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry: 6.34)
The Macpherson Report recognised an institutional propensity to ‘unwitting racism’ which “can arise because of lack of understanding, ignorance or mistaken beliefs” (The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry: 6.17) which can emerge through stereotyping and thrive in certain communities. Following these definitions it would appear self-evident that pervasive and intractable institutional racism is apparent within football administration, with only four managers in all of the professional English football leagues from BME backgrounds there would appear to be an overwhelming prima facie evidence of racial discrimination and bias. The very limited number of BME managers is inconsistent with the legacy of black players in English football, considering iconic figures such as Cyril Regis, John Barnes, Ian Wright and the numbers of BME players within the modern multi-ethnic football and sport in general. What is striking to consider how many BME players have made the transition into management and administration in comparison to the proportion of those who are white.
Racism in football has typically been characterised as relating to fan hooliganism and terrace chanting, which has been its most explicit form. For example, Back et al explain that to simply study the ‘improvements’ in racism since the 1970s and 1980s is a failure to acknowledge the uneven development of racism within football (1998b). Racism in football during this period was overt and very public in its exposure and there is a clear contrast between the pre-existing and existing states of race-relations within . However racisms can be expressed in different ways, such as the previously stated concept of ‘unwitting racism’, and therefore notions of discrimination can operate in structural bias and exclusion. The Chair of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, Afred John, believes that the police service has continued to be institutionally racist because of their inability to “recognise discriminatory behaviour” (The Macpherson Report- 10 Years On: 6) and therefore it can be assumed that ignorance of the mechanisms of racism can, in itself, contribute to its sustainability.
Lloyd Samuels, who works for the organisation ‘Football Unites, Racism Divides’, provides an example in an interview:
the coaches don’t get no cultural training of ‘do you understand that certain things that you say or certain things that you imply could be deemed as the most disgusting things to a young ethnic player?’. For instance, if you don’t understand about what’s halal meat and what’s not halal meat then you’re always going to have this concoctive view of what it really is and what purpose it was for.
This highlights importance of even the more subtle aspects of cultural tradition and the impact of this on possible experiences of inclusion and exclusion. It is this factor of cultural awareness, or lack of it, which can therefore create a disparity between creating a sense of belonging within an institution or generating alienation.
The review of relevant literature will be divided into two sections: those who have documented through personal experience and observation how modern racisms are constructed and reproduced, with particular focus to the changes in the expressions of racisms in football. Social theory will then be introduced to enable the explanation of how networks of ideas can be formed and cemented, which can compel Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups to become marginalised through structural processes, yet altered through inclusion, awareness and possible legislature.
A review of racisms and their countenance in modern football
Although there has generally been a lack of focus and assessment which directly concerns the premise of institutionalised racism in football, there has been attention paid to the reproduction of ‘whiteness’ which forms a governing structure and enforces the reconstruction of racial boundaries and dichotomies. An element of which is an occurrence of patent and manifest racism articulated through hooliganism has been of particular interest. For instance, Back et al explain that hooliganism has tended to construct the parameters of debate around football and become the embodiment of club culture in what has been termed the ‘race-hooligan couplet’ and consequently “In the context of the politics of racism, the ‘hooligan’ becomes the exemplary archetype of the racist” (1998b: 72). Examples of categorical forms of racism have been documented by footballers like Paul Canoville, who is the first black footballer to play for Chelsea. He has accounted various instances where he was even subject to racist chanting by home fans, verbal abuse such as “We don’t fucking want you” (2008: 142) and “fuck off back home” (2008: 142) which reveals the levels of animosity aimed towards the emergence of black players even and the complex nature of inclusion in football for BME groups. The deterioration , as implied by results gathered in a survey conducted by Garland and Rowe, has been attributed to the assistance of fan-based groups by raising awareness, such as Charlton Athletic’s ‘Red, White and Black at the Valley’ (Garland and Rowe, 1996). Therefore, it can be established that such displays of solidarity and the promoting of education to enlighten groups at community level about the ramifications of racial abuse can succeed in diminishing racist elements.
Similarly it is considered that an insignificant history of Asian footballers in Scotland has been posited in a degree of meagre acknowledgment. Dimeo and Finn argue that this consisted of the failure to acknowledge and oppose the racial abuse aimed at Asian footballers and a failure to appraise their services for national teams or fledging careers which led to a further distancing from recognition and inclusion. This consequently culminated in the failure to redefine what was believed to be a traditional national identity due to race (Dimeo and Finn, 2001). Therefore it can be argued that racism can persist in being manifest within some fan cultures if it remains unchallenged and cultural codes are reproduced within a specific milieu. Furthermore, a propensity for footballing bodies to underestimate the importance of demonstrating the achievements of BME representatives leads to a lack of representation.
When questioned whether notoriously racist elements of fan support could influence the structural preferences of a football club and those that govern it when considering the ethnicity of potential players or managers, Lloyd Samuels of ‘Football Unites, Racism Divides’ argued that
They [the fans] pay the bills. It’s a rock and a hard place for the clubs, they’re all struggling to keep their stands full, you know, from the stands they get their finances. If their stands are empty they lose a whole bag of money from advertising and sponsorships and stuff like that. So they’re playing this balancing game of keeping the die-hard fans but also trying to bring in new fans from these new club communities
This insinuates the pressures of governing bodies in football to comply with a traditionally embedded realm of whiteness and the image of fan culture which is in accompaniment. It also highlights a complexity immersed in the reluctance to oppose the homogenous whiteness affronted by groups of fan support which therefore becomes an element of the edifice.
The importance of recognising the studies of hooliganism and a lack of representation can therefore enlighten how forms of popular and local cultures are expressed and reproduced if they are not challenged. It can also form a basis of understanding for the construction of local ideologies to which football supporters adopt and can consequently sway the ideals of governing bodies and executives who seemingly seek the support of a fan base, such as the poor levels of acclaim Asian players have received in Scotland. Gilroy argues that much of the racism which is concurrent in British society can be traced back to colonial discourses, which attributed ethnic groups with particular traits that were deemed to be innate within cultural settings and therefore adopted by all from those backgrounds. It is suggested that because of intrinsic links between ethnicity and culture, England’s black settlers have been assigned the same traits as their enslaved ancestors (Gilroy, 1993) and therefore a lack of awareness and cultural understanding has led to prejudice and stereotypes becoming unchallenged and reproduced. Correspondingly, Carrington argues that “notions of ‘race’ and ethnicity are conflated with national identity thereby working to exclude, by definition, blacks from Britain” (1998: 103). Thus traditional national images seem to have been maintained without reconstruction and therefore have sustained a predominant white influence through the preserving of what is believed to be a singular British culture, which in turn rejects the embracing of others. Nationalism is therefore central to racist ideologies and discourses.
Such discrimination bound in nationalistic beliefs is also articulated by Burdsey in the form of ‘Islamophobia’, which is argued to have become progressively evident since the increased threat of terrorism from Islamic extremists (2007). This form of racism seems typical of what can be seen as idealistic colonial nostalgia which intends to protect a nation from practices which are deemed a cultural threat. The magnitude of such views is clear when considering that sixty-nine per cent of Muslim respondents in a Premier League survey said that they were either ‘more likely’ or ‘much more likely’ to attend a football match if attitudes were more welcoming (Official Site of the Premier League: 19). Likewise, Horak and Marschik explain the influence of rooted anti-Semitic post war hostility in Austria that continued to be embedded in society. It is argued that a divide was enforced between those deemed as foreigners and ‘native’ locals and progressively became exacerbated with levels of migration (1996). The origins of racism can be determined as a desire to retain a national identity which was considered to be challenged by the exposure to unwelcome racial and cultural integration rather than the embracing and responsiveness to the benefits of multi-culturalism. Concepts such as ‘Islamophobia’ and the specific context in which levels of racism increased in Austria highlight the fluidity of the contours of modern racisms with influence from populist nationalism, whilst also inferring the corresponding alienation of cultural and ethnic groups and how this impacts on uncertainties of belonging, even in public arenas such as football.