Football, Migration and Racism

Football, Migration and Racism examines the complex intersections of racism, antiracism, football, and migration in contemporary global contexts. Drawing from a themed issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies, the volume investigates how race influences football cultures across different national settings. The collection features empirical studies from West Africa, Czechia, Sweden, Costa Rica, England, and Italy, offering diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding racialisation processes in football. It addresses critical gaps in sports sociology by explicitly connecting football to broader patterns of racial and ethnic relations. Contributors explore racialised stereotypes of African players, media representations, grassroots anti-racism initiatives, and the colonial legacies that continue to shape contemporary football cultures. Each chapter provides detailed analysis of how migration patterns, talent development systems, and institutional practices perpetuate or challenge racial hierarchies within football. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students in sociology of sport, race and ethnic studies, migration studies, and cultural studies.

Marco Martiniello is a sociologist and political scientist. He is Director of Research at the National Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) and Founding Director of CEDEM (Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Migration) at the University of Liège, Liège, Belgium, where he teaches sociology of migration, inter-ethnic relations and racism. His work focuses on the relationships between the arts, culture, sport, immigration and ethnicised and racialised minorities. He is also interested in transnationalism and issues of migration policy, citizenship, multiculturalism, racism and the political mobilisation of immigrants. John Solomos is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Warwick, Coventry, UK. He has researched and written widely on the history and contemporary forms of race and ethnic relations in Britain, theories of race and racism, the politics of race, equal opportunity policies, multiculturalism and social policy, race and football, and racist movements and ideas. His most recent book is Antiracism: A Critique (2025). He has been Joint-Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Ethnic and Racial Studies since 1995. He is also co-editor of the book series on Racism, Resistance and Social Change for Manchester University Press.

Racism, antiracism, football and migration: introduction 1. "Big, strong, reliable guys who have the legs to run": racialised stereotypes of the African player and talent development systems in West Africa 2. "Let the N* play so that he can score goals": racism and racialization towards African football players in Czechia 3. Race on and off the field: Ghanaian footballers in Sweden 4. An experimental test of "racist stacking" in football 5. Football in Costa Rica: kicking balls, upholding coloniality 6. Race in televised football: insights from behind-the-scenes within major English football media organizations 7. The discourse that makes racism disappear: Italian football and the (re)construction of the Maignan case 8. Anti-racism in grassroots football: bridging policy gaps and local struggles in migration-shaped communities