The sanction to Racing Club for the racist gestures of its fans reopens the debate on discrimination in Argentine football

The barra brava of Racing de Avellaneda, in a file image. Getty

The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) has sanctioned on Tuesday the Argentine Racing Club for the racist gestures of a group of fans during a match against Flamengo of Brazil in Buenos Aires. The trigger has been a video filmed from the visiting stand that shows a group of local fans imitating the gestures of a monkey after a tie for the group stage of the Copa Libertadores, the most important regional competition in America, on May 4. The racist gestures of the fans, which the Conmebol regulations sanction with a fine of $ 100,000, have reopened the debate on discrimination in the stands of Argentine football. The sanction to Racing has been resolved the same night that a Colombian footballer denounced racist insults during another match in Buenos Aires.

"The issue of racism is already tiring. To be called a monkey, to be called black, is disrespectful and sad," Colombian striker Hugo Rodallega complained on Tuesday after the defeat of his team, Independiente de Santa Fe, against Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata in Argentina. "It doesn't hurt me that we lost, it hurts me what happens in the stadium environment. It's a disaster what's happening in the whole world," he said still on the field, while being interviewed after the match of the Copa Sudamericana, the second regional competition.

Hugo Rodallega denounced racist insults from fans of Gimnasia 👇 pic.twitter.com/x7XmeDy2ZA

— VarskySports (@VarskySports) May 24, 2023

The authorities of Gimnasia apologized on Wednesday, although they now await the resolution of the Disciplinary Commission of the Conmebol. The regional football authority could sanction the team on the same grounds as Racing Club: article 15.2 of its disciplinary code, which provides for a fine of $ 100,000 against any institution "whose fans insult or attempt against the human dignity of another person or group of people, by any means, for reasons of skin color, race, sex or sexual orientation, ethnicity, language, creed or origin."

Rodallega's complaint opens a new panorama in the face of xenophobia in Argentine stadiums. It is the latest case that goes beyond the usual insults when national teams face Brazilian teams. The latest sanction an Argentine team received for the xenophobia of its fans is a carbon copy of the incidents at Racing's stadium earlier this month. In May 2022, Boca Juniors fans made similar gestures against Brazilian Corinthians fans during another Copa Libertadores match. The joke is so common in confrontations between fans of both countries that Brazilians have their own response: they usually burn Argentine bills from the stands to mock the runaway inflation in the country.

The xenophobic and racist insult is a mark of violence in Argentine stadiums, which have restricted the entry of visiting fans to league matches for a decade. The organization Save Football keeps a historical record of 346 violent incidents in stadiums that ended in the death of a fan in situations ranging from human avalanches to police repression. But the most common episode is fights or ambushes between fans.

Banning visiting fans from stadiums has done little against xenophobic chanting in the stands. Anti-Semitic insults against Atlanta, a Buenos Aires team from one of the city's traditionally Jewish neighborhoods, or xenophobic chants against Boca Juniors, which link the popular roots of the team's most fanatical home to South American immigration in Argentina, are common episodes in national soccer. But the cruelty against Brazilian teams is transversal in Argentine football: such as Racing, River Plate, Boca Juniors or Independiente de Avellaneda have been sanctioned for the insults of their stands to the visitors in the last two years.

"We cannot allow fascism and racism to dominate inside football stadiums," Brazilian President Lula da Silva complained this week about Spain's "passivity" against racist insults suffered by Vinicius Jr, Brazilian player of Real Madrid. Lula's government has asked its Spanish counterpart to take action in the case. Turned the racism that Vinicius lives in Spain into a diplomatic conflict, the latest sanctions on an Argentine team now put the focus on the South American neighbor.

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