A pre-season friendly on a training ground in the Spanish city of Marbella was a low-key setting to shine a spotlight on a growing problem in football.
But when Italian club Como’s defender Marco Curto racially abused Wolverhampton Wanderers’ South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan, what should have been little more than a glorified practice session became, instead, a flashpoint for an under-reported issue.
Last season, anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out recorded 473 incidents of racist abuse aimed at players in England’s professional leagues, of which 12 per cent involved players from an East/South East Asian heritage. It is a depressing phenomenon that is on the rise.
“We’ve seen a year-on-year increase in incidents and reports of East & South East Asian players being racially abused,” Kick It Out chief executive Sam Okafor told The Athletic. “Over the last five seasons, 35 per cent of player-specific abuse reports have concerned East and South East Asian players, which is a really high percentage.
“We’ve had a year-on-year increase of incidents and reports coming into Kick It Out. Last season, 48 per cent of player reports were targeted at East and South East Asian players.”
Wolves’ players reacted angrily to Curto’s abuse of Hwang. Daniel Podence, who has since joined Saudi side Al Shabab, was sent off moments later for aiming a punch at a Como player. Last month Curto was banned for 10 games, five of them suspended for two years, after world football’s governing body FIFA investigated the incident, which occurred while both clubs were holding pre-season training camps in Spain.
A spokesperson for FIFA said: “The player (Marco Curto) was found responsible for discriminatory behaviour and sanctioned with a 10-match suspension.”
Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur is waiting to find out the consequences of his comment about Spurs team-mate Son Heung-min, also from South Korea. The Uruguay international was recorded in an overseas media appearance suggesting Korean people “all look the same”.
While Son has accepted an apology from Bentancur, who described it as “a joke in bad taste”, the midfielder could be banned for between six and 12 domestic games when an independent regulatory commission considers a Football Association misconduct charge brought against him.
In the Hwang case, a bizarre statement released by Como shortly after the incident claimed Curto’s abuse, referencing the Hong Kong-born actor, writer, producer and martial artist Jackie Chan, was a play on Hwang’s name. It was an explanation that appeared to get short shrift from FIFA, judging by the severity of Curto’s punishment.
“Anyone who thinks that any form of racism is a joke needs to get further education and the right form of sanctions need to be put in place,” said Okafor. “There is no form of racism that should be seen like that. It’s not banter. It’s not a joke. It’s racism, and it’s not acceptable either in football or wider society.”
This weekend, Frank Soo was inducted into the Hall of Fame at England’s National Football Museum in Manchester.
If Soo’s name is not familiar to you, that is probably because his story has not been widely told.
He was born in Derbyshire, a county in the English Midlands, in 1914 to a British mother and Chinese father and became the first man of Chinese heritage to play in the Football League. Soo was also the first player from an ethnic minority background to be capped by England, appearing in nine wartime and victory internationals between 1942 and 1945.
Soo played more than 150 times for Stoke City and captained a side that included England legend Stanley Matthews, while also serving in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. His name has now been adopted by the Frank Soo Foundation, which aims to tell his story, support players from East and South East Asian communities in football and tackle racism, often working alongside Kick It Out.
The rise in cases is a concern if not a huge surprise.
“It’s not surprising because, obviously, with more high-profile players from these communities now, you’d expect to see more incidents,” Alan Lau, the foundation’s founder and chairman, told The Athletic.
“It’s a cultural thing, too, because I think wider society doesn’t really see some of the abuse that people receive as racism. There’s less education on this. More people think it’s acceptable to racially abuse people from East Asian communities because there hasn’t been as much profile in saying why it’s wrong. So when it comes to the common tropes, it’s still in the public mind to think that’s funny and acceptable.
Son, left, and Bentancur (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
“There hasn’t been a public conversation saying why that’s wrong and why we shouldn’t be doing that in the same way as, for example, how people wouldn’t make monkey chants because people know that’s wrong. We’re talking about different extremes but it’s still racism, so I think a lot of it is about public perception.”
The rise in prominence of players from the East and South East Asian communities has coincided with the increase in racism directed at players. But the trend extends to the stands, too. The community makes up a small proportion of the overall UK population — approximately one per cent — but those members of it who venture to football matches can find themselves targets for racism that, Lau says, is linked indirectly to the wider ecosystem in the game.
“There are people who are priced out of going to football. They see people who they think have come over from abroad to watch games and there’s animosity,” he said. “And then that gets wrapped in with racism — ‘Why are they coming in and taking our seats?’. I think it is more prominent in our communities because we’re visible and it’s hard to fight back.
“Sometimes other fans will see people from an East Asian background and think ‘Oh, you must be a football tourist’. There is a wider football issue with accessibility and affordability. But don’t be racist about it. It’s quite simple.
“I understand how it is tough for someone who sees people who they feel have taken their seat or taken their space, how the price has gone up and they’ve not been able to pay that price to get that same seat. It’s fair enough to be resentful of that but don’t mix it up with racism.”
Kick It Out’s statistics from the past five years make for depressing reading.
Overall incidents of player-specific abuse in the professional game have risen each year over that time, both in terms of incident numbers and the number of people who have contacted the charity to report them. At the same time, the percentage of both reports and incidents that concern players from East and South East Asian communities has increased, too, from two per cent of reports and three per cent of incidents in 2019-20 to 48 per cent and 16 per cent respectively last season.
The Frank Soo Foundation help arrange tournaments across the UK (Frank Soo Foundation)
Kick It Out plans to replicate its previous education programmes, which helped educate fans and players about racism directed at other minorities, to raise awareness and education surrounding the East and South East Asian communities.
It will find willing allies at the Frank Soo Foundation and, while the rise in cases is alarming, Kick It Out takes encouragement from the number of fans reporting the incidents. While there was an overall average of two reports for each incident of player-specific abuse last season, the number of reports for incidents of East and South East Asian abuse averaged 8.6.
“Every incident needs to be fully investigated and the right sanction needs to be put in place,” said Okafor. “Sometimes that’s a ban, sometimes it’s a fine, sometimes it’s education. It’s important that the right signal is sent.
“I believe that the player (Curto) got a 10-game ban, so that sends a clear message that we’re not willing to tolerate this. For me, we need to see more of these bans where we see racial discrimination but education is also really important and we need to see more of that as well.
“We measure reports per incident and for every incident that takes place and the message that is sending us is that fans are not willing to tolerate it.”
(Top photos of Hwang Hee-chan, left and Frank Soo: Getty Images)
