Discrimination in Danish organised grassroots football: Gender, ethnicity, and sexuality

Thirty-one-year-old grassroots football player Yasser Al-Hamad has experienced being called “monkey” and being told to “bug off to his home country” by opponents when attempting to provoke him in football matches. Similar discriminatory practices directed at others with non-normative identities in Danish organised grassroots football, including women and non-heterosexuals, are present. The personal narratives of Yasser and others can be understood as “personal troubles”, but they reflect more general tendencies that can be examined as public issues paying attention to experiences and attitudes towards gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. This chapter examines the interdependence between individual experiences of discrimination and discrimination as a social issue. We draw on individual testimonies about discriminatory experiences as well as a nation-wide survey of more than 8000 respondents, all of whom participate in organised grassroots football clubs. Results indicate that discrimination is a persistent social issue in sport even as diversity and inclusion are commonly raised as public goals. Discrimination is more often experienced by minorities than by the majority population and is not just an individual experience.