ROUTLEDGE FOCUS RACISM AND ENGLISH FOOTBALL For Club and Country Daniel Burdsey Focus Racism and English Football Racism and English Football: For Club and Country analyses the con­ temporary manifestations, outcomes and implications of the fractious rela­ tionship 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, influ­ enced 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 foot­ ball, at club and international level, Racism and English Football extends and expands our knowledge of how racism occurs and, criti­ cally, 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. Daniel Burdsey is a Reader in the Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics at the University of Brighton, UK; and an Associate Professor (Status Only) in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto, Canada. His previous books include British Asians and Football: Culture, Identity, Exclusion (Routledge, 2007) and Race, Ethnicity and Football: Persisting Debates and Emergent Issues (Routledge, 2011). Routledge Focus on Sport, Culture and Society Routledge Focus on Sport, Culture and Society showcases the latest cutting-edge research in the sociology of sport and exercise. Concise in form (20,000–50,000 words) and published quickly (within three months), the books in this series represents an important channel through which authors can disseminate their research swiftly and make an impact on current debates. We welcome submissions on any topic within the socio-cultural study of sport and exercise, including but not limited to subjects such as gender, race, sexuality, disability, politics, the media, social theory, Olympic Studies, and the ethics and philoso­ phy of sport. The series aims to be theoretically-informed, empirically- grounded and international in reach, and will include a diversity of methodological approaches. List of titles Who Owns Sport? Edited by Andrew Adams and Leigh Robinson Rugby in Global Perspective Playing on the Periphery Edited by John Harris and Nicholas Wise Doping in Sport A Defence Thomas Søbirk Petersen Racism and English Football For Club and Country Daniel Burdsey Referees, Match Officials and Abuse Research and Implications for Policy Tom Webb, Mike Rayner, Jamie Cleland and Jimmy O'Gorman For more information about this series, please visit: https://www. routledge.com/sport/series/RFSCS Racism and English Football For Club and Country Daniel Burdsey First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Daniel Burdsey The right of Daniel Burdsey to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-0-367-42376-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-60778-4 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-85315-0 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Taylor & Francis Books This book is dedicated to Roger Charlery aka Ranking Roger (1963–2019). Football has played a major part in the development of my personal anti-racist politics. Music has been equally important. The songs of Roger’s band The Beat have provided much of the soundtrack to my life since I discovered their music in my teenage years. They underpin many of the guiding principles of my scholarship, demon­ strating the role of everyday popular culture in resisting hate, mobilising anti-racism and fostering inter-racial soli­ darities. I was lucky enough to meet Roger once, after a concert in Brighton, and he lived up to everything I hoped he would be. Roger died while I was writing this book. His legacy will live on: ‘love and unity, the only way’. Contents List of illustrations viii Acknowledgements ix Foreword xi 1 Racism and English football 1 2 C lub 23 3 Country 63 4 Playing by different rules? 97 References 104 Index 127 Illustrations Figures 1.1 When Skies are Grey fanzine with anti-racist T-shirt advert, 1993 18 1.2 Banner in support of Moise Kean, Goodison Park, 28 September 2019 19 Tables 2.1 Football Association 2021 targets 34 2.2 Progress towards Football Association 2021 targets (as of 2019) 34 Acknowledgements This book took just over one year to write, but it is, in many ways, the outcome of 20 years of researching football and nearly four decades of watching it. To this end, innumerable people have played a part in its realisation. Thank you to each and every one of them. I am grateful to all the students I have taught at the University of Brighton over the past 16 years, especially those who have taken my ‘Racism in Sport and Popular Culture’ and ‘Power and Politics in Sport’ modules. Many of the topics and arguments in this book were first delivered in these classes. Regrettably I am not sure I have ever been sufficiently convincing in articulating this, but I mean it sincerely when I say that, as a lecturer, I learn from my students too. My work is all the better for their contributions, insights and critiques. Thank you to Viji Kuppan for writing such a kind, thoughtful and poetic foreword to this book, and for the many occasions where we have exchanged ideas over a pint or two. He is a scholar of the highest integrity and always reminds me of the important things in research: positionality, reflexivity, accountability and responsibility. It is a friendship I cannot put a value on. I am incredibly fortunate to have a group of close friends and rela­ tives that I can turn to, often at short notice, for support and feedback on my work. In a gesture of extraordinary personal and intellectual generosity, Stan Thangaraj read and commented on the whole manu­ script for this book. Stan’s extensive knowledge of the field and sharp analytical insight were key to conceptualising the narrative and shap­ ing the structure, not least in helping me to break out of my linear thinking and to “join the dots” in different ways. Equally importantly, Stan knows how my mind works and my anxieties around deadlines, and was a constant source of reassurance as I completed the book. I could not ask for a better intellectual companion. Paul Campbell and Tom Carter provided detailed commentary on particular chapters.