Indicator history

However, such discourse is very difficult either to confirm or to dispute: the absence of data, as in other areas of discrimination, does not allow for many conclusions regarding the extent to where there is racism in the world of sports. There are no statistics of racist incidents in sports, only few cases have reached either the competent state bodies for receiving complaints, or even the sports organisations that have disciplinary competences, such as sports federations.

Some cases involving racist practices do reach the public eye, mainly through the media. All of them occur in football and the great majority is in the form of verbal insult. But even these cases tend to be referred, by the representatives of the main sports institutions, as occasional, not significant and not inserted in more general trends.

These representatives tend also to downplay the importance of the presence of extreme-right wing individuals in the organised supporters organisations, but such presence was already acknowledged both by social-scientific research, focusing on the main Portuguese clubs, and by the police. These supporters’ organisations were even pointed as recruiting points for extreme-right activism.

The racist incidents in sports that have been reported concern only one sport, football, and involve the same kind of situation: racist insults directed by supporters to black players, either in national matches or in UEFA competitions. Some of these incidents led to applications of fines, but the number of sanctions is scarce. According to the testimony of some black players, racist insults in the field are frequent, which contradicts the assumption, held by leaders of the sports organisations, that racism is external to football in Portugal.