According to four in ten football players, racism and other forms of discrimination regularly occur in football, according to a poll by the Mulier Institute among 118 Dutch professional football players from the Eredivisie and Keuken Kampioen Division. Fourteen percent of the football players surveyed say they have experienced this themselves, while a quarter state that jokes or negative comments are made within their team about skin color, origin or religion.
A fifth of Dutch professional football players believe that there is a taboo on ‘discussing prejudices and stereotypes based on skin color and origin’. This taboo is particularly experienced by players with a migration background and they believe that more coaches and administrators of color should come. “It is truly incredible that former players such as Seedorf, Davids, Kluivert, Hasselbaink and Bogarde have never played in the Eredivisie. There needs to be more diversity and more explanation about why racism or certain things are no longer possible,” an anonymous Eredivisie player is quoted in the study.
The Mulier Institute’s research was conducted in the context of the National Sports Agreement, a partnership between the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the NOC*NSF sports umbrella and municipalities. The results should help combat racism in sport, against which the KNVB presented a three-year ‘plan of attack’ in 2020. The survey – which was sent to 1044 players in Dutch professional football and was completed by approximately 11 percent – shows that ‘the reactions of supporters, public opinion and also social norms’ are regarded as the biggest obstacle to combating racism.
“Anyone who discriminates and excludes others has no place in football. Football is a team sport. Profit is celebrated together and loss is shared together. A match is not possible without opponents, referees, trainers and volunteers. Professional football is not possible without spectators and fans,” the KNVB said in a response to the investigation. The football players surveyed give the football association a scant pass for its approach to racism.
“In order to combat discrimination, we have introduced twenty new or tightened measures in the past year and a half. For example, the term for stadium bans has been doubled to ten years and players can be banned from five to ten games. In addition to penalties, we are also working hard on awareness, cooperation and identification,” concludes the KNVB. “The border is clear: discrimination and exclusion are not tolerated in any form. Not by us and as far as we’re concerned by no one. So let’s collectively reduce that fourteen percent to zero percent as quickly as possible. Because only keeping zero is acceptable.”
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