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News Tip: In Europe, Unusual Moves to Combat Soccer Racism

Duke Professor Laurent Dubois Discusses Racism in European Soccer

This week, authorities in Europe have taken the unusual step of bringing racism charges against two prominent professional soccer players alleged to have directed racial slurs at opposing players.

Laurent DuboisProfessor of history and Romance studies, Duke UniversityVideo: http://ondemand.duke.edu/video/19994/laurent-dubois-talks-soccer-anOn Twitter @soccerpolitics

Dubois is the author of "Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France," which tells the story of the French national soccer team and the political and sporting controversies that have surrounded it in recent years. He teaches a course on the World Cup and maintains a soccer blog at http://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/

Quote:

"The English Football Federation's strong condemnation of Liverpool player Luis Suarez's repeated use of the Spanish word 'negro' directed to an opposing player, along with the pending charge against John Terry in a similar incident, is part of an increasingly uncompromising stance taken toward the use of racial language on the soccer field. While authorities in many European nations have long sought to marginalize and stigmatize fan racism, players on the field have proven more complicated to police.

"These incidents illustrate that soccer provides a place to think through broader issues that continue to haunt European societies: What is racism? How is it expressed? And what can be done to make it disappear?"