The problem of racism in European football

Abstract

The paper addresses racism as a key contemporary challenge to safety at football matches in Europe. The hypothesis is that racism does occur in the sports environment. To prepare the paper, press excerpts and scholarly publications on racism were used. To interpret the material, comparative method was used, so as to present the environments that harm safety in sports. The goal was to demonstrate the role of education in fighting discrimination in contemporary European football and the need to care for security culture in football. It is because football stadiums become arenas for expressing political and ideological views, as well as for racist at-tacks. The author points at the role of mass media and public entities in shaping social atti-tudes concerning racism in sports. He also indicates shortcomings in the law and in the activi-ties of the institutions overseeing sportspeople’s and sports activists’ safety. The conclusion is that the upbringing of society as regards tolerance and respect must become a priority in fighting racism in sports. Further research should focus on the education of children and ado-lescents and on introducing costly and effective sanctions for the individuals and entities that violate the rule of respecting one’s sports competitor.