This is how LaLiga has acted to fight racism on soccer fields

Football is passion, emotion, competition, spectacle. Soccer is also teamwork, friendship, unity, empathy and learning. Nobel Prize for Literature Albert Camus, who had a great passion in his youth for football, confessed its importance to his personal growth: “After many years in which the world allowed me different experiences , what I know, for a long time, about the morality and obligations of people, I owe it to sport”. To sport in general and football in particular. All these positive values ​​that help create a comprehensive and integrated society is firmly defended and without any doubt by LaLiga.

Because what is not football is discrimination, insult or violence. And what does not fit in a stadium, or in Spanish competitions, is racism. LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank pride themselves on having some of the best players in the world, vibrating millions of people with their talent and goals. Players from different countries on the planet, with different cultures, religions or races, united by the desire to enjoy and make this sport enjoyable. LaLiga, aware of its role as an example for society, will continue its projects and protocols with the aim of eradicating racist behavior in stadiums forever.

awareness campaigns

In 2013, Javier Tebas became president of LaLiga. Since then, the fight against racism, violence and intolerance has been a priority. In these years, LaLiga has launched many awareness campaigns, in collaboration with clubs and fans, against intolerant behavior in Spanish stadiums.

We will see the last of these campaigns in the last two days in all the Spanish fields. LaLiga, the Royal Spanish Football Federation and the Higher Sports Council have come together to show the relentless rejection of racism in sport in a campaign spread under the slogans “Together against racism” and “Racists out of football” .

Viewers from around the world saw the campaign on television broadcasts. Where the starting eleven can be seen carrying banners with the said slogans before the start of the game. Also, the captain’s armbands also changed their design to refer to the campaign and those attending the stadiums received informative brochures to raise awareness and eradicate these behaviors.

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Zero tolerance: several channels to denounce racist attitudes

This is, as we said, the latest in a long list of actions sponsored by LaLiga to denounce and raise awareness about the problem of racism. In this season of 2022/2023, the Stop Racism campaign was developed, whose graphics were displayed on the scoreboards of LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank. Emphasizing an unwavering rejection of any discriminatory activity, it also points to the solidarity and responsibility of the followers, who have several channels at their disposal in a few months where they can denounce any racist attitude which they witnessed.

They can do this through the Telegram channel @StopRacismoLaLiga or through the email StopRacismo@laliga.es. In addition, any discriminatory behavior can be reported to LaLiga through a complaints channel established by the institution. Because the support and union of all fans is the only way to banish racists from stadiums forever.

According to LaLiga’s protocols, the course of action after receiving complaints from fans is based on helping to identify all those who have committed these acts of discrimination based on race, nationality, religion, language, sexuality or disability, to denounce them. have the ability to punish them.

Training and raising awareness, the best tools to prevent racism

However, the institution knows that the best way to prevent these horrific events is to prevent them through awareness and education. For this reason, LaLiga has training plans aimed at promoting tolerance and respect between people of different cultures and aimed at both young players and society as a whole.

In this way, in collaboration with the Federation of Clubs’ Supporters Clubs, a “Manual for fans” has been prepared in which the values ​​of coexistence, harmony and fair play are highlighted. Anyone interested can download it from the Aficiones Unidas microsite. Also, players receive a “Player’s Manual” at the beginning of each season, in which the most relevant aspects of the competition are disclosed. Among other topics, the manual emphasizes the responsibility they have in combating intolerance and racism and encourages them to practice their profession with respect for all their colleagues and to denounce any discriminatory situation they experience or witness.

Along with these informative manuals, LaLiga also has various projects carried out with clubs, which aim to raise awareness and generate a positive impact on society. With the same goal, the public address system in the stadiums and the video scoreboards broadcast messages against xenophobia and racism on a regular basis.

And some key actors to stop any hint of racism on the soccer fields are the security directors. For this reason, in collaboration with the National Police, LaLiga organizes different training sessions where different presentations are given that focus, among others, on prevention and identifying hate crimes in the fields. One of the conversations, for example, focused on identifying hate crimes and symbols. Also, members of La Liga’s Integrity and Security Directorate attended National Police trainer-of-trainers courses on hate crimes as speakers.

LaLiga promotes an active response and in collaboration with all institutions. To this end, it recently presented to ministerial representatives an awareness campaign on racism in sport, which will be carried out jointly.

Denouncing racist actions

We all know that, despite campaigns and preventive actions, there are uncontrolled elements that commit hate crimes and racism in or around soccer fields. Within the framework of the zero tolerance commitment to violent or discriminatory attitudes, LaLiga, within its power, denounces the facts before the competent bodies to judge them.

In the 2014-2015 season, the institution created the LaLiga Integrity and Security Department. Since then, more than a dozen racist actions have been identified and investigated and denounced by LaLiga. In recent months, he directly denounced before the investigative courts the insults received by Vinícius Jr., Nico Williams, Samu Chukwueze, Iñaki William and Carlos Akapo after the Hate Prosecutor decided to archive previous complaints made by LaLiga.

In addition, as a member of the State Commission against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport (CEVXRID), it provides all complaints for racist, xenophobic chants or inciting violence taking place in matches under its jurisdiction.

LaLiga is demanding that the law allow those who commit racist acts to be punished

The truth is that LaLiga has no power to sanction those who commit racist acts. In the case of possible administrative penalties, the regulations are governed by Law 19/2007, of July 11, against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport. According to this, the sanctioning power is attributed to the Government Delegation, Secretary of State for Security, Ministry of the Interior and the Council of Ministers, without prejudice to the possible powers of the Autonomous Communities. LaLiga can only denounce the facts. And this is exactly what it does.

LaLiga has formally requested that the Law be changed to directly penalize racists

The impossibility of punishing individuals who commit racist actions on soccer fields makes it difficult to stop those who pollute the values ​​of the sport and tarnish the image of LaLiga, its clubs, players and fans around the world. For this reason, LaLiga formally requested that Law 19/2007, of July 11, against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport and Law 39/2022, of December 30, of sport.

The purpose of the proposal is to ensure that LaLiga can use disciplinary power in incidents of this type that occur in professional competitive matches. In this way, LaLiga’s disciplinary bodies can impose sanctions such as the total or partial closure of the sports area, the prohibition of access to it in the case of members/season ticket holders or the imposition of economic sanctions, among others.

Sport, and especially football, is a space where diverse people come together with a common goal: to enjoy and make the fans happy. The positive values ​​of football favor the inclusion and respect of all, regardless of their origin, gender, race or religion, and there is no place here for anyone who maintains discriminatory and racist attitudes. For this reason, LaLiga, in addition to denouncing specific cases that occur in the competition environment, has set up training, campaigns and reporting spaces and is determined to fight until it has the capacity to punish anyone who commits actions contrary to the values ​​of the sport and to completely eliminate the scourge of racism in Spanish football.