Soccer putting the boots to racism

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/03/2019 (2722 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Love Football Hate Racism.” Emblazoned on St. Ambroeus FC’s website, where it rotates with phrases such as “No one is illegal” and “Love Milan Hate Racism,” it is the unofficial slogan of one of Italy’s first competitive soccer teams founded and represented by asylum seekers.

This weekend, while Euro 2020 qualifying interrupts top-flight schedules and rearranges the continent’s best players into national all-star teams, St. Ambroeus, established by the amalgamation of several refugee centres in Milan, will host Real Crescenzago at their modest ground on Via Fabio Massimo, around 3.5 kilometres from the Viale Isonzo that forms part of the perimeter highway encircling Milan proper and next door to a paintball park.

St. Ambroeus play in Terza Categoria, Italian soccer’s ninth tier, and their matches are political demonstrations.

Late last year, in a match documented by Al Jazeera, fans lit flares and unveiled a banner reading “L’incubo di Salvini,” or “Salvini’s worst nightmare,” in reference to Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant League party who just this week had to rely on Senate intervention to dodge criminal prosecution over his blocking of a migrant vessel from Italian ports back in August.

“We want this to be just the beginning of a larger and more lasting project,” the St. Ambroeus website says. “Because we are convinced that, only by breaking down the clichés and walls of ignorance, will we be able to favour processes of social inclusion aimed at those who have immigrated to our city in recent years. And what better means of integration than the universal language of football?”

They walk the walk at St. Ambroeus. On Thursday, they visited a local school, bringing their message to their city’s youth. They documented the visit in a Facebook post they signed off with the hashtag #lovefootballhateracism.

Cultural make-up

Progressive activism has long been woven into the cultural make-up of many soccer teams. Unfortunately, the same can be said of right-wing extremism and movements of racial purity.

But in recent years, even weeks and days — as refugees have sought new opportunities in Europe, giving rise to racist political parties and the xenophobic Brexit enterprise, as a U.S. president has cheered on white supremacy and as an Islamophobic, white-supremacist terrorist attacked Muslims in Christchurch — several clubs have endeavoured to make a specific, principled stand.

In January 2018, Eintracht Frankfurt president Peter Fischer drew a hard line between supporting the German outfit and holding the far-right, xenophobic views of the Alternative for Germany (AFD) party.

“Check yourself and check honestly, because both do not go together,” he said, adding that “no one is forced to become a member of Eintracht Frankfurt.”

His position was endorsed by Bundesliga rival Werder Bremen, which also denounced the AFD. More recently, in an article published on Tuesday by CNN, Borussia Dortmund’s efforts in combating racism and anti-Semitism were highlighted. A fan-run project, in operation for eight years, takes supporters of the club on educational visits to concentration camps and also has an initiative in place for Dortmund employees.

In Babelsberg, a district of Potsdam, fourth-tier SV Babelsberg have been confronting neo-Nazism head-on.

Following an April 2017 incident involving far-right Cottbus supporters, the Nulldrei embarked on a grassroots endeavour to not only embrace diversity and inclusion, but also de-platform white supremacists from the country’s stadiums. They printed T-shirts reading, “Nazis Raus Aus Den Stadien,” or “Nazis Out Of The Stadiums,” and have been raising money to help small clubs start their own anti-fascism campaigns. Larger outfits such as Dortmund, Bremen, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Freiburg, Mainz, St. Pauli and Stuttgart have since contributed to the effort.

“The real heroes are those clubs and people taking a stand in the lower leagues,” Babelsberg president Archibald Horlitz said in an interview last year with ESPN, which reported on his club’s operation. “They sport a ‘Nazis Out’ shirt at the game and might get beaten up in the local boozer in the evening.”

On Thursday, ahead of their match against Oberlausitz Neugersdorf, Babelsberg players signed limited-edition, anti-racism jerseys. In a Facebook post, the club reiterated that it “condemns any form of discrimination… online and everywhere in everyday life.” It added the hashtag “nazisrausausdenstadien,” Nazis Out Of The Stadiums.

North American efforts

Closer to home, and rather out of the news, fans in the supporters’ sections at New York City FC home matches recently succeeded in getting a notorious skinhead — a member of the chauvinistic, neo-fascist Proud Boys organization — and his followers banned from Yankee Stadium, despite initial reluctance from the club in adopting any sort of moral or political position.

Unfortunately, it took violent altercations outside the ground, initiated by the far-right contingent, to generate the attention that eventually led to action.

“We’re not going to f—ing change the world,” one fan told the Huffington Post. “But at least we can clean up our little corner.”

The Seattle Sounders, on the opposite coast of the United States, are doing a different type of cleaning. Last month, ahead of the start of the current Major League Soccer Season, the club announced that it would be entirely carbon neutral, making no net contribution to atmospheric carbon dioxide.

“The Sounders have always been committed to investing in our community, and that includes recognizing the immense responsibility we have as environmental stewards,” owner Adrian Hanauer said. “Sustainability is a key pillar of our club, and this new step is a logical extension of the efforts we have already had in place.”

As part of their carbon-neutral scheme, the 2016 MLS Cup champions will be planting 370 Douglas fir, grand fir, western red cedar and western hemlock trees along the Duwamish River at a point vital to salmon spawning.

Climate action, it’s worth pointing out, is action completely counter to the doctrine of the racist far right. As Rebecca Solnit, a board member of Oil Change International, wrote in the Guardian this week, “Behind the urgency of climate action is the understanding that everything is connected; behind white supremacy is an ideology of separation.”

Where environmental protectors hold that habitability is as much a right for one group of people as it is another (never mind for non-human species and non-animal life generally) anti-climate campaigners adhere to the dogma of individualism, self-preservation at the expense of all else — and using guns to ensure it — and to the superiority and dominion of race.

It is white supremacy, it is racism, it is fascism and it is not owed a voice or a platform. There is no debate.

“It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love.”

Confucius said that, and it is heartening that some soccer clubs have chosen the harder, better way.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

Twitter: @JerradPeters