Conclusion: Racisms and the Cultures of Football

Abstract

In many respects the discussion contained in the preceding chapters reveals a series of contradictory tendencies in respect to racism and anti-racism in British football. Consideration of some aspects of the game, for example the continuing serious underrepresentations of British Asians at professional levels, reveal racist stereotypes about diet, religion or physical limitations that are more usually associated with the crude propaganda of extremist far-right parties. On the other hand, the success of black players, both collectively in terms of the numbers playing the game professionally and individually in terms of high-profile stars — some of whom have become managers once their playing careers have finished — continues to be widely invoked as a role model from which other aspects of contemporary society might learn. The victory of the ‘multiracial’ French team in the 1998 World Cup was greeted as evidence of the vitality of a plural society by that country’s President, and similar claims have been made about the apparent successful integration of black players into the British game. Contradictions can also be identified in the media coverage of the game.