LONDON (UK) – Last year reports of racist and homophobic behaviour at soccer matches in Britain reached a record high.
According to Kick It Out, an advocacy group monitoring such incidents, discrimination in the 2019/20 season during professional games climbed 42% to 446 and homophobic abuse almost doubled. Reports of racism went up by 53%.
This comes amid global protests against racism spearheaded by the Black Lives Matters protests.
“There’s a lot less stigma about reporting – in some ways that’s very encouraging,” Rodney Kumar, a spokesman for Kick It Out, said.
“But obviously it’s quite alarming that we have seen pretty big increases when it comes to all manners of discrimination around football, which we do want to tackle.”
In July, a 12-year-old boy was interrogated by police after Crystal Palace striker Wilfried Zaha received racism messages on Instagram, including a photograph of the White outfit Klu Klux Klan.
Reports of discrimination on social media platforms dipped by 24% which Kumar said was because of quicker action by firms to remove online abuse.
Premier League clubs such as Everton and West Ham United probed reports of homophobic chants at their matches in December while Chelsea banned a group of Manchester United supporters from a game in February.