A report from the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia has provided detailed data on football-related hate speech spread through social networks. Over the seven months of the last league season, the Observatory detected more than 33,400 pieces of hateful content, of which only a third were removed from the group of platforms on which it was published. In this task, Facebook (62% of messages removed) was much more effective than X (just 10%). The photographs resulting from the study not only served as a tool to exercise this control, but also to verify that the worst and most aggressive racist prejudices that are rampant in stadiums have been transferred to the networks.
The most diversified Spain in recent history is reflected in La Roja, European champion last year with the fundamental contribution of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, two Spaniards, children of immigrants. However, racism, Islamophobia and the stereotypes associated with them persist on football pitches and on the internet. The FC Barcelona striker himself and the Real Madrid player Vinicius Júnior – two players who resisted the attacks received in some matches – are the largest recipients of insults in cyberspace: 60% of the total for the former and 29% for the latter.
For too long, hatred in Spanish stadiums has been part of the landscape thanks to fans and sports institutions who underestimated the scope of the problem, reducing it to the category of anecdote or limiting it to the most radical fan groups. However, despite the advance of the xenophobic discourse of the far right and the loudspeakers provided by the networks, this state of affairs is changing little by little. In June 2024, a turning point marked the groundbreaking eight-month prison sentence of three Valencia fans who a year earlier had called Vinicius a “monkey” at the Mestalla. It was the first conviction for racist insults in a Spanish stadium.
If we must demand greater force from digital platforms to eliminate any messages of hate, it is essential that all those involved – the fans, the clubs, the players and coaches, La Liga and the federation – do everything possible to put an end to these practices on the playing fields, a place where thousands of minors also look every week. The legal framework against racism in stadiums – from the Criminal Code to the law against violence and intolerance in sport, in force for over 18 years – already exists. Also the zeal of the Prosecutor’s Office and the security forces to stop him. But it is clear that only the commitment of the entire society will be able to eradicate an unacceptable plague in an advanced democracy.
