Multiculturalism in football: From hero to “foreigner”

Major sporting events are always stages of identities. This is particularly true for football, which has always been considered to have an integrating function. Football isn’t just played, a tournament isn’t just won or lost, it always means something: the Miracle in Bern in 1954 meant Germany’s return to the world stage, and France’s triumph in 1998 was also a triumph of multiculturalism over overly rigid conservative national ideas identities, was a triumph of modernity over old Europe. It’s never just football.

Nowadays less than ever, every small gesture is interpreted and negotiated. In the current case, the small gesture comes from Antonio Rüdiger, who in an official UEFA portrait photo points to the sky, where the god he believes in apparently lives. The Tauhīd finger is a statement of faith. This gesture was then quickly branded as a terrorist greeting by the right-wingers, especially by people like the free-turner Julian Reichelt, who have closed their minds to the realization that Islam now belongs to Germany. (One often hears from such people that national pride should not be left to the Nazis.)

Othering, i.e. the marking of a player or a group of players as “other” and “foreign,” can be found in almost every football history in Western countries.

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The question then turned to whether the national football team actually represents this society: In a documentary broadcast by WDR, the results of a survey were presented, according to which 20 percent of those surveyed would think it would be better if there were more white players on the pitch. These types of surveys have accompanied sport since it established itself as an opportunity for advancement for marginalized groups; After France won the World Cup in 1998 with their “black blanc beur” team for the first time in their history, there was a similar survey. At that time, 32 percent of French people answered that the team was not white enough.

Othering, i.e. the marking of a player or a group of players as “other” and “foreign,” can be found in almost every football history in Western countries. The Italian international Mario Balotelli often had to contend with the claim that black Italians did not exist; The Briton Marcus Rashford was the target of many racist insults, especially after he missed the decisive penalty in the 2020 European Championship final.

In Germany, dealings with Mesut Özil have never been free of anti-Muslim sentiment. When France was eliminated in the preliminary round in South Africa in 2010, the players were made symbols of the youth gangs in the banlieues that would drag the country into ruin. This list could be continued indefinitely.

In football, these racist and chauvinistic tendencies are countered by a multicultural narrative that emphasizes the gains through diversity. After the win against Hungary, Katrin Göring-Eckardt saddled up with this meta-narrative in a particularly clumsy way when she tweeted: “Imagine if there were only white German players.” She later apologized, saying she worded it poorly, but basically she did They thus grasped the basic problem: multiculturalism is only justified if it is successful.

Multiculturalism is a derivative of liberalism. In 1971, John Rawls laid down the requirement of strict state neutrality against particular identities and values. Only the protection of universal needs is the state’s responsibility; the rest is none of its business. In contrast, multiculturalism – here specifically Taylor and Gutman – claims the recognition of the individual as a primary good. So there is a right to difference.

It is not immediately clear how this right should be enshrined in concrete terms. There is no real theory. The concept of multiculturalism mixes various approaches; it is a practice that makes it possible to interact with the various fragmentary groups in a society. The idea is to preserve cultural diversity by allowing different groups to preserve their characteristics and characteristics. To do this, spaces and situations are created in which minorities express themselves and perform their identities; From these zones they interact with other groups and enrich the society around them in an intercultural exchange.

The problem in football and other sports is that you lose more often than you win. The demands and expectations are always higher than the actual result, even if the team wins in the end; because the next tournament and with it the next defeat are already waiting. In football, every victory is a delay of the embarrassment that will inevitably follow. That is why multiculturalism must fail because of its own demands.

There are, of course, alternatives: One of the most beautiful stories of the 2018 World Cup was written by Sweden, who came with a very limited group and lost 2-1 to Germany at the last second in a dramatic game in the preliminary round. The decisive free kick was caused by Jimmy Durmaz, who was then subjected to hundreds of thousands of racist insults. But the team saw themselves as such and stood united behind him. And literally. A video was produced in which Durmaz read out a statement with his comrades behind him, and when they shouted “Fuck racism!” towards the end, Durmaz began to cry. It was a touching, human moment, the most beautiful scene of the entire World Cup.

One of the greatest players of all time was the Brazilian Socrates, who played for Corinthians São Paulo during the military junta. During his time there, a kind of democracy was designed within the team, the jersey advertising on the chest was abolished and pro-democracy slogans were used instead. One of the Corinthians’ jerseys read: “Win or lose, but always with democracy.” That is the message that this team sends: you have to decide to be together in solidarity. This is work. This can’t be attributed to you, it’s something you have to do yourself.

Socrates later moved to Florence, Italy, and his reason was that he wanted to be able to read Gramsci in the original and study the history of the Italian working class. As Kylian Mbappé recently said in view of a possible election victory for the right-wing extremists in France: There are things that are bigger than football. Reading Gramsci, for example.