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United Kingdom

UK To Ban Online Racists From Soccer Games (pbs.org) 160

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PBS: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the government plans to ban anyone guilty of online racist abuse from soccer matches as authorities continue to respond to the lawlessness connected to England's loss in the final of the European soccer championship. Johnson on Wednesday told lawmakers that it was time to act after three Black members of England's national team were targeted by racist abuse on social media after they failed to score during the penalty shootout that sealed the team's loss to Italy on Sunday night. The government plans to add online racism to the list of offenses for which fans can be barred from matches, he said.

"What we are doing is taking practical steps to ensure that the football banning regime is changed so that if you are guilty of racist abuse online on football, then you will not be going to the match," Johnson said during his weekly prime minister's questions session. "No ifs, no buts, no exemptions, no excuses." Courts are allowed to issue banning orders if a fan is convicted of a "relevant offense" linked to a match, including crimes such as disorderly behavior or possession of weapons.

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UK To Ban Online Racists From Soccer Games

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  • Why is the government getting involved in this?

    Shouldn't the decision of who to admit be up to the football leagues?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The leagues want to do it, but they want to be on firm legal ground when they ban someone for something they did outside the stadiums. It looks like now they'll have it.
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by Cederic ( 9623 )

        Hmm, no. It's a rather more simple 'racially abuse footballers and we will remove you from football'.

        Football hooligans can and will still meet outside the ground, and it's likely that none of the five people from the UK that posted racial abuse online at the weekend are members of a firm.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jobslave ( 6255040 )
      Exactly! Just like Facebook, Twitter, et all should be able to ban people like Trump, Margorie 3 names and Lauren B. and anyone else who violates their TOS without government interference.
    • Why is the government getting involved in this?

      Shouldn't the decision of who to admit be up to the football leagues?

      The football leagues probably don't have the legal power to compel social media sites to turn over IP addresses of those posting the offending comments, nor the power to compel ISPs to turn over subscriber information corresponding to these IP addresses.

  • by BrendaEM ( 871664 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @06:34PM (#61583391) Homepage
    It's a waste of time to a group of people--for petty reasons like skin-color, sexuality, or gender. Without our skin, we are all the same: screaming and trying to get our skin back.
  • European teams are international selection of players from all over the world, there is absolutely no reason to root for any of them. Poor countries get players from poor countries, and will always be second class.

  • Isn't "Down with Italy" racial abuse? The whole sport is predicated on one race attacking another on the pitch.

    • Aren't they the same morons who wanted to charge seismologists with felony manslaughter after there was an earthquake? Screw those guys.
      • by Nadir ( 805 )
        The charges were lifted by the Italian Corte di Cassazione. One prosecutor does not a country make. You are the moron for generalizing.
        • One prosecutor? What about the judge that tried all seven of the scientists, convicted them of a crime, then sentenced them to 6 years in prison? source [sciencemag.org] Sure, eventually the conviction was overturned but it took 7 years of paying lawyers and court appearances to put it to bed. That's not just an overzealous prosecutor.

          • by Nadir ( 805 )
            That speaks more of the slowness of our legal system (which is a dreadful problem)
    • Isn't "Down with Italy" racial abuse? The whole sport is predicated on one race attacking another on the pitch.

      Oh dear. Look if in future you don't know what racism is I highly suggest ticking that "post anonymously" button before posting about it publicly. This doesn't look good for you.

    • I'm trying to decide if this is the stupidest post on the thread. Since it's a thread about racism, there's some exceptionally stiff competition but you might just be the winner.

  • by Bert64 ( 520050 ) <.moc.eeznerif.todhsals. .ta. .treb.> on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @11:48PM (#61583775) Homepage

    I suspect that in many cases, the people slinging these insults are not actually inherently racist, but are using the hysteria over racism to attract more attention towards their insults.

    Consider this. When the team was winning, people were praising the players including the non-white players and there were little/no insults of any kind being levelled at them. Had they won the final it's almost certain that would have continued.

    Now that they have lost, supporters are angry and looking for someone to blame. Those players who missed their penalties are the obvious targets, and angry supporters will use whatever words they believe are most likely to have the most impact.

    It's not about racism, it's about hostility towards someone perceived as being responsible for the team's defeat.
    If racism wasn't such a touchy subject and noone cared, people would be finding other ways to try and insult the same players.
    If white players had missed their penalties, they would have received no less hostility it just would have been phrased differently and attracted less attention.

    • by Bert64 ( 520050 ) <.moc.eeznerif.todhsals. .ta. .treb.> on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @11:57PM (#61583789) Homepage

      And also consider...

      Those who are genuinely racist are offended by the mere presence of non-white players in the team at all, irrespective of the results of any matches.

      Racists would be even more angry to see a team win because of the efforts of non-white players.

      Racists would be happy to see a team containing non-white players lose, especially to an opposition team consisting of white europeans. They would see this as a demonstration of the racial superiority they believe in.

    • by Ksevio ( 865461 )

      Whether they're inherently racist or just casually racist - they're not the types of people you want at the games

      • by Bert64 ( 520050 )

        Probably not, but by making it all about racism you are mixing two different things.

        On the one hand you have sore losers who will abuse players when they don't get the result they want. They will abuse players irrespective of race.
        On the other hand you have racists who will abuse any race they don't like, irrespective of their actions. They will abuse players even if they are winning, and they will abuse non football players too.

        There is undoubtedly some overlap between the two, but it's coincidental. Makin

        • by Ksevio ( 865461 )

          The person that pointed out international sporting competitions are inherently nationalistic brought up an irrelevant point. They're not complaining about people saying "Italians suck", they're cracking down on people calling the British black players racial slurs.

          People should have to tolerate abuse because of their race. It's absolutely fair for the white players if they do this and people only are bitching about them playing poorly or whatever. They're not stopping people abusing the players, they're s

  • Common knowledge the PM is racist in his words and actions.

    The Home Secretary Priti Patel is pushing through a bill in parliament that
    seeks to remove the right of GRT people to exist.
    We are led by racists.

  • Only about 0.0075% of the posts were from the UK. And those were from suspiciously newly created accounts.

    The Sportsball Scam
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmc12n5uCPU

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