“When you win you’re French, but when you lose you’re Black, African and Arab.”
– Twitter post by author Khaled Beydoun after France’s 2022 World Cup Final loss
I have always seen soccer as a great equalizer sport. Sports like tennis and golf require lots of equipment and space such as rackets, clubs, balls, and large playing fields. At its heart, however, soccer just requires a ball and is at times even played barefoot. This is why it is possible for some of the brightest talent in the game to come from very humble backgrounds. The soccer world is very accepting, encouraging, and even in awe of these uplifting stories of stars who have risen out of their circumstances to shine on the international stage.
True, soccer might be the great equalizer when it comes to socioeconomic status. When it comes to race, however, we live in a world where all people are not treated equally. Recent events at the 2022 FIFA World Cup have resurfaced this harsh reality in soccer.
French fans have reveled in the successes of their team and its impressive feats. France became the first team in twenty years to make it to consecutive finals, after winning the 2018 World Cup. In doing so, they broke the curse of past teams who have been eliminated in the knockout stage of the World Cup after bringing the trophy home. Fourteen of the twenty-five selected players for the French squad were of African origin – statistics similar to that of the 2018 team that won the World Cup.
However, in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 World Cup Final, racist attitudes were everywhere. French fans were quick to heap racial taunts and abuse on the French national team, blaming players of African origin for the defeat in the finals against Argentina. The Washington Post wrote on December 20th, 2022 that “three French players were targeted with racist online abuse. Some of the abuse, which was first reported by the BBC on Monday, targeted French standouts Kingsley Coman and Aurélien Tchouaméni, who missed decisive shots in the 3-3 defeat that concluded in a 4-2 penalty shootout.” These events closely mirror those of last year’s European final where Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, and Bukayo Saka faced racial abuse after missing their penalties in the loss against Italy. On the other hand, in the World Cup Quarterfinal, England captain Harry Kane missed a penalty that could have kept them in the game, yet was not subject to the level of hate that these other players were. Do fans not realize that their country’s success is achieved on the backs of the very people who they blame for failure?
Both France and England have histories of racism throughout time that continue to persist in such ways. While these actions have been condemned by National Team’s, clubs, and organizations like the Premier League working towards zero racism, the condemnation has not removed the drivers of these behaviors. The underlying racist sentiments that people hold are rooted in centuries of history. Before each Premier League match, teams take the knee, a symbol that there is “No Room for Racism.” Teams like Brentford, however, stopped taking the knee as they believed the gesture did not have a significant impact on the sporting atmosphere. Ultimately, we must ask ourselves some tough questions. Do sports only reflect or mirror issues that are inherently societal? Or can sports have a greater transformative or healing power? And, what, if anything, can we do to help people realize that the same people who achieve the successes are fallible human beings who will make mistakes?—and fallibility is color blind.
Hill, G. A. (2022, December 20). Three French players face racist online abuse after World Cup loss. Washington Post; The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/20/french-players-racism-world-cup/. A day after their loss to Argentina in Sunday’s dramatic World Cup final, three French players were targeted with racist online abuse. Some of the abuse, which was first reported by the BBC on Monday, targeted French standouts Kingsley Coman and Aurélien Tchouaméni, who missed decisive shots in the 3-3 defeat that concluded in a 4-2 penalty shootout. The abuse, which reportedly included monkey and banana emoji, was also aimed at teammate Randal Kolo Muani, who has since turned off comments on his Instagram posts. Meta, the company that owns Instagram, said in a statement to the Athletic that “we’ve removed the disgusting comments for breaking our rules.”
