Published: October 6, 2025
The lights shone bright at Wembley Stadium in London as the European Cup final between England and Italy kicked off on July 11, 2021. With a 1-1 stalemate, the game went to a penalty shootout between the two nations. England ultimately lost 3-2 on penalties, crowning Italy champions of Europe. Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka — three young, emerging stars of the English national team — were the players who missed their penalty kicks that day. But instead of rallying behind these talented young men who had the courage to step up in such a high-stakes moment, many fans and sectors of the media responded with a wave of abuse. The backlash they faced was not just about the missed penalties — it was also deeply rooted in racism.
As one of the oldest sports in the world, soccer has brought fans, families, and communities together since the 19th century. For generations, fans have tuned in to be swept away, the noise of the world fading into the background for 90 minutes each week. Yet, as much of an escape the game can be, real issues that plague society are just as much ingrained in sport. The treatment of Rashford, Sancho, and Saka is just one of countless instances in which Black players have been racially targeted by fan abuse. The fact of the matter is that racism has always been a deep-rooted issue within soccer.
Throughout much of the 20th century, many European national teams hardly had any Black players. In fact, it wasn’t until 1978 that the first Black player debuted for the England national team. While in the modern game, European teams are racially and ethnically diverse, racism still plagues the modern game. Even today, many fans from countries like France and England call for a return to a more “homogenous” national team culture — a thinly veiled excuse to exclude players of color and of diverse ethnic ancestry. Germany’s far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), even publicly condemned the national team for promoting what it calls a “rainbow ideology.”
Examining the issue further, non-White racial representation across different roles within the sport is still lacking, especially within the European game. A 2022 study from the Black Footballers Partnership revealed that, despite 43% of players in the English Premier League being Black, only 4% make up Black coaching staff. In addition, in 2023, the Players’ Football Association revealed that South Asian players make up less than 1% of the roughly 5000 professional players active in England’s top four leagues.
League campaigns like the Premier League’s “No Room For Racism” have aimed to combat this deep-seated problem. However, despite some tangible progress shown by the Premier League — including a more than 7% increase in workforce representation by individuals from ethnically diverse backgrounds since 2021 — racism remains a societal and systemic issue that appears to run deeper than these initiatives can reach. Many players have been taking matters into their own hands by publicly advocating for racial justice.
Activism through sports provides an ideal platform for advocacy, but it has been met with resistance. In the American National Football League (NFL), for example, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick faced intense fan backlash after kneeling during the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality against Black people across the United States. Kaepernick was accused of being disrespectful and unpatriotic, labelled by many as a disgrace to the NFL. More recently in England, Marcus Rashford, who has consistently been subject to racist fan abuse since the Euro 2021 final, has spoken out against the mistreatment he has faced. In a Twitter post in April of 2024, Rashford stated, “[My treatment] is abuse… Enough is enough.”
While player activism often sparks public outcry and press coverage, soccer media must also critically reevaluate its role in shaping this discourse. A study by Dr. Paul Campbell, a sociology professor at the University of Leicester, highlights how soccer media treats Black players differently from White players, based on commentary from the 2018 FIFA World Cup. While White players’ on-field abilities are praised as “intelligent” and indicative of a “strong character,” Black players tend to be lauded for their physical qualities, like their “power” and their “natural athleticism.” A further breakdown of the study revealed that nearly 70% of positive commentary about Black players centered on their physicality, compared to only 18% for White players. Contrastingly, only 10% of Black players were praised for their learned ability, compared to 48% of White players. Such a discrepancy in how these players are characterized doesn’t stem from objective reporting, but is emblematic of internalized, outdated, and bigoted pseudo-race science. Within this framework, such commentary — even if unintentional — implies that Black players only succeed due to their natural physical abilities, while White players are portrayed as excelling because of their intellect, effort, and character.
Soccer leagues, fans, and athletes have been working to move towards a future of racial equality; as a sporting community, it is critical to acknowledge and remedy these patterns of discrimination to move forward. While these groups must continue to work towards positive progress, media and journalist organizations have to take responsibility. The soccer media industry must mandate substantial training to help them identify racial stereotyping and discrimination within their reporting practices. To uproot such a systemic issue, all aspects of the game must be evaluated to protect the players, and the vital role that the media plays in public perception of players of color cannot be ignored.
The sheer diversity of soccer is something to be celebrated; no other sport in the world can compare to the global appeal that soccer carries. People of all kinds of backgrounds, racial demographics, and ethnic origins are represented on the world stage; fans across the planet deserve to see themselves represented in the sport. Diversity will always have a place in the beautiful game. But we must continue to learn and advocate for racial justice by demanding change not only in soccer, but in the media and society as a whole.
