Kick It Out reveals 'shocking' rise in reports of racism in football

Kick It Out has revealed it received “shocking” increases in reports of racist and homophobic abuse in professional football last season – despite hundreds of matches being played behind closed doors or postponed because of the pandemic.

There were 446 incidences of abuse reported during 2019-20 – a 42% increase on the previous season. Reports detailing racist abuse went up by 53% from 184 to 282, and Kick It Out received 117 reports of abuse based on sexual orientation compared with 60 last season – a rise of 95%. However, some forms of discrimination related to religion and gender did decline.

Related: 'It happens every day': Zaha calls on social media companies to act over online racism

In a press release that described the figures as “shocking”, the chair of Kick It Out, Sanjay Bhandari, said the results painted a worrying picture. “This year the pandemic and the killing of George Floyd turned the world on its head. Football responded positively with clubs increasing their work in the community and with the players symbolising the demand for greater equality of opportunity, by taking a knee. But beneath the surface, hate and division in society remains a lurking pernicious threat.”

A separate YouGov poll for Kick It Out, which surveyed more than 1,000 fans, found 30% of them had witnessed or heard racist comments or chants at a match in 2019 and 71% had seen racism on social media directed at a footballer. The survey also found 32% of fans said they had witnessed homophobic comments at a match.

Bhandari said: “Our reports indicate a steep rise in discrimination reports over the last two years, which reflect the Hate Crime statistics from the Home Office that show marked national increases over the last four years.” But as our YouGov poll also confirms, we know that reports to Kick It Out are just the tip of the iceberg.

“We need to aggregate the data across Kick It Out, clubs, law enforcement, governing bodies and others so that we have the complete picture to give us a greater chance of finding better solutions together. We urge those organisations to share data to create better insights.”

Bhandari also warned that hate on social media continues to rise significantly and called for better regulation and enforcement by governments and police. “As the findings of our YouGov poll also demonstrate, social media can be a battleground of hate,” he said.

“We need to work together across society to win this battle. With the pause of the football season earlier this year due to Covid-19, we have seen people using social media to deliver hate messages, especially when they cannot attend games. Football and social media can be a positive force but in order to tackle online hate, everyone needs to do more.

“We need better regulation and enforcement and we need social media companies to be part of the solution. We need clubs and governing bodies to continue to lobby for change, sanction offending supporters and support law enforcement processes with the provision of evidence. We need players to continue to use their powerful voices. We all need to do more. We all need to take a stand.”

At grassroots level there were 94 reports compared with 113 in 2018-19, a fall of 14%. However, all grassroots matches from March 2020 were cancelled because of Covid-19 and so when comparing last season with the equivalent period the season before, there was an 11% increase in reports.