Racism and English Football: For Club and Country analyses the
contemporary manifestations, outcomes and implications of the fractious
relationship between English professional football and race. Racism, we
were told, had disappeared from English football. It was relegated to a
distant past, and displaced onto other European countries. When its
appearance could not be denied, it was said to have reappeared. This
book reveals that this was not true. Racism did not go away and did not
return. It was here all along.
The book argues that racism is firmly embedded and historically rooted
in the game's structures, cultures and institutions, and operates as a
form of systemic discrimination. It addresses the ways that racism has
tainted English football, and the manner in which football has, in turn,
influenced racial meanings and formations in wider society. Equally, it
explores how football has facilitated forms of occupational
multiculture, black player activism and progressive fan politics that
resist divisive social phenomena and offer a degree of hope for an
alternative future.
Focusing on a diverse range of topics, in men's and women's football, at
club and international level, Racism and English Football extends and
expands our knowledge of how racism occurs and, critically, how it can
be challenged. This is an essential read for scholars and students
working on race, ethnicity, sport and popular culture, together with
those interested in the social and organisational dynamics of English
professional football more generally.
