Racism’s doubled in four years
THE number of racist incidents at football matches has almost doubled in the last four seasons, an exclusive investigation by the Sunday Mirror has found.
The London derby between Tottenham and Chelsea in the run-up to Christmas was the latest English football match to be marred by incidents of racism.
Alleged racist chanting and monkey noises aimed at Antonio Rudiger led to the match being paused.
The incident came just two weeks after the Manchester derby also saw players subjected to racist abuse.
In October, the FA Cup match between Haringey Borough and Yeovil Town was abandoned when Haringey’s keeper was racially abused.
Racist abuse – once something considered all but eradicated from the English game – seems to be back and in everincreasing numbers.
Figures obtained using Freedom of Information requests suggest that the number of incidents has almost doubled in just four seasons.
A request for the number of racist incidents reported by officers at football games over the last four seasons was sent to every police force that covers a Premier League or Football League club.
A total of 12 forces were able to provide data – Cleveland, Devon and Cornwall, Essex, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Gwent, Hertfordshire, Humberside, Leicestershire, Merseyside, Norfolk and Wiltshere.
There were 63 incidents logged by those forces in 2018/19. That was up from 42 in 2017/18, 32 in 2016/17 and 33 in 2015/16.
That’s an increase of 91 per cent in just four seasons. Official figures from the Home Office paint a similar picture.
There were 193 racehate crime incidents reported in 2018/19, up 47 per cent from 131 the year before.