Racism in Football

... Tom Fowler Racism in Football General Studies Coursework Introduction Whilst racist activity both in and around football grounds has been a feature of the 1970s and 1980s, racism within professional football in Britain has, historically, been tied to the nature of British society, in particular its colonialist and racist past. Cohen (1988) has suggested that by virtue of its imperialist phase, racism is constitutive of what has become a "British way of life". This fact has also been reflected in English football, which was historically disinclined to co-operate, or have routinised contact with so-called 'lesser' footballing nations. FIFA, for example, was set up without English support in 1904, and the England team did not take part in the World Cup Finals until 1950, at which point they were summarily humiliated (0-1) by the unconsidered USA. Later in the decade (1950s) the Football League unsuccessfully opposed the involvement of English clubs in European

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