Racism is a society problem, not a football problem.
Whenever there is an incident that catches the attention of the media a phrase along those lines will be produced by somebody.
There is some truth in that statement. To separate football from society is not possible, it does not exist in isolation but as a part of a larger organism, reflecting the positives and the negatives of the world at large.
Yet, when I hear the phrase, my feeling is that it is an attempt to side step any responsibility. Passing the issues up. Racism in football can not be solved until racism is solved in society. Again, it feels like a statement that must be true, but it also feels like a statement that suggests there is no point in football trying, or that football is trying really hard, but society as a whole needs to try harder.
I have no doubt that society does need to try harder in general with regard to racism and equality in an unequal world. However, this cannot be an excuse to not set an example. To not be better.
Multitude campaigns have been run in football to show that racism will not be tolerated, though at times the responses from the governing bodies call into question just how intolerable they consider racism to actually be.
As coaches and custodians of the game we are surely intolerant of racism in all of its forms?
As coach educators we would surely never accept any racist terms being used?
Yet we do.
We may not realise that we do, but we do. In fact, certain coaches will actively encourage it.
This is likely because of a lack of education and a lack of understanding of the term in question, but is ignorance an excuse?
Communication between coaches and players is vital. Coaches will use terms that players are unfamiliar with, players will also use terms that the coaches are unfamiliar with, such can be the nature of an age gap. Of course, it is not the responsibility of the players to be understood by the coach, but the coaches certainly will need to be understood by the players. In their quest to be understood they will pick up on the player’s language to try to connect.
As futsal coaches and coach educators a key concept of the game it to score far post goals, playing the ball to the second post for an easy tap in. This idea has a similarity with a particular type of goal in FIFA.
The “sweaty”.
The dreaded goal of FIFA players everywhere. A player is through against the goalkeeper but instead of finishing themselves, they tap it to the side for a team mate to score. Or in another excellent shooting position they choose to pass to a teammate for an easy finish.
Coaches have picked up on this and started using it to help players understand the concept of removing the goalkeeper from the goal scoring equation and scoring as easy a goal as possible. However, they have done this without question the term and it’s etymology.
Simply put, the origins are racist.
The term was designed as an insult to the scorer.
They had scored a goal that lacked skill.
A cheap goal.
They had scored a Jew goal.
Coaches have openly used the terminology with good intentions but not considered the bigger picture of where terminology has arisen.
Ignorance should not be an excuse but if there is no education or awareness about such matters these terms become embedded. The age of the images I have included show how long the term “sweaty” has been in use. It is in the last four or five years that I have heard it used by coaches. I would urge them to stop.
The price of freedom is constant vigilance. We must be vigilant with our words so as not to embed casual or accidental racism. By stopping the small acts we may be able to prevent the escalation of larger acts. Be wary, be careful, be intolerant of only one thing:
Racism.