Zero tolerance against racism in football in Brazil: loss of points and closure of stadiums

Even Pele himself suffered from this toxic scourge since he was a teenager who had just arrived at Santos. Before becoming a planetary myth he was disparagingly nicknamed "Gasoline" because of his skin tone. "If they had to stop every game in which someone called me a 'macaque' they would have had to interrupt every game I played," he used to say. At the dawn of the twentieth century, soccer in Brazil was an incipient elitist phenomenon forbidden to blacks. It would be time until "the people suddenly discovered that football should be of all colors, football without classes, all mixed, well Brazilian", as the famous journalist Mario Filho wrote in 1947 in his book The black in Brazilian football, a classic of national literature.

Thousands of black players of several generations found in football an element of social ascension, if not of pure survival and always threatened by the plague of racism. Racial prejudices persist in a country in which more than half of the population declares itself black or mestizo, with enormous rates of inequality and that reached harmful levels of political and ideological polarization in recent years with the arrival to power of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro. When Lula da Silva regained Brazil's presidency in January, he signed a law equating racial insult with the crime of racism, which is imprescriptible, not bailable and carries harsh prison sentences. The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) was already reviewing its anti-racism measures. And it had the close collaboration of the Observatory on Racial Discrimination in Football, an entity that monitors since 2014 all acts of racism, homophobia, misogyny and xenophobia in stadiums with detailed annual reports that illustrate the enormous magnitude of the problem.

Marcelo Carvalho, director and founder of the Observatory estimated 90 racist incidents in Brazilian football in 2022 and says that these higher numbers than those of previous years respond to more complaints. "The pact of silence has been broken. And they are also the result of a greater awareness of fans, players and press." The number of sanctions against clubs for episodes of racism was derisory until recently. Only one club, Gremio de Porto Alegre, was eliminated from the Brazilian Cup in 2014 because of the racist expletives that a large group of rollers dedicated to Aranha, goalkeeper of Santos.

Ednaldo Rodrigues, the first black and northeastern president of the CBF, which has promoted the new regulations in force since February, said that "racial discrimination is a crime." "Our job is to shed light on the issue. We really hope to have the support of the clubs, of the fans, of all segments of society, of all the press, so that this is not just decorative." Rodrigues had an ace up his sleeve: he did not submit the new sanctioning regime to a vote among professional clubs and included it directly in the new 2023 Competition Regulations, valid for all categories and mandatory.

The CBF thus establishes a new sanctioning structure for racist acts, whether committed by the public or by any member of the clubs. It contemplates economic sanctions to the club (whether local or visitor, and even if it is a single fan who utters a racist insult) and strong sports sanctions to players, technicians, referees, employees or managers involved in an act of racist offense. In case of serious repetition (such as a considerable group of people who insult) the closure of the stadium is contemplated. And also the loss of points in the competition, something that is not included in the regulations of any European federation. The penalties shall be imposed administratively by the CBF. The cases will be referred to the STJD (Superior Court of Sports Justice), which will judge on the application of a fine, closure of the field or loss of points to the offending club.

In addition, the minutes of the match, the reports of the CBF and the clubs will be sent to the Public Ministry and the Civil Police so that the process goes beyond the sports field. The new protocol has already been activated: on May 7 in the match between Athletico Paranaense and Flamengo a fan of the local club dedicated apelike gestures to the visiting fans. The club itself, which in its stadium encourages to report racist acts or abuses through QR codes visible in all stands, identified the culprit and the STJD Court (by report of the CBF) has proposed an economic sanction to the club and a minimum of 720 days without being able to enter the stadium for the fan. The formula contemplates expediting all instances: the trial will be at the end of this month. Sports Minister Ana Moser, who these days showed the solidarity of the Brazilian government with Vinicius Jr, publicly congratulated the CBF for its initiatives to combat racial discrimination.

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