The Charity ‘Kick It out’ has reported an increase in discrimination across English football. So far this season, 111 incidents have been reported to Kick It Out from the top four English leagues. 64 incidents were from the Premier League (compared to 40 this time last year), with 47 being from the Championship, League One and League Two (compared to 29 this time last year). Incidents of discrimination across the top four leagues has rose by 38% compared to this time last year. Across professional football, 51% of reported incidents concerned racism.
This is not our first article on the topic; others are here and here.
Chair of Kick it Out, Lord Ouseley said:
“Our latest statistics reveal a significant increase in incidents of discrimination in football, which should act as a wake-up call to everyone in the sport”.
Does the law protect professional footballers as employees?
In 2013, legal provisions were removed which meant that employers were no longer liable for third party discriminatory harassment against their employees.
Before 2013, an employer could be liable for third party discriminatory harassment if they failed to take reasonable steps to prevent discriminatory harassment from a third party to their employee, provided that the employer knew the employee had been harassed by a third party on at least two previous occasions (whilst in the course of employment). This means that employers are no longer expected to ban troublesome, racist, clients for fear of facing discrimination claims from staff, for example.
Where does that leave discrimination in English football? At the moment, clubs are not liable for the actions of fans (who are a third party) if they abuse their footballers in stadiums. Maybe if the pre-2013 provisions were re-introduced, the risk of liability for football clubs would ensure that all football clubs across all levels take big steps to prevent their players being discriminated against on the football pitch. This could heavily contribute to eradicating discrimination in English football.
By Zahid Reza
Image used under CC courtesy of Global Panorama