Sport offers a promising platform for putting social issues on the agenda through campaigns and for reaching a heterogeneous target group with educational offers. More to the point, football brings more people together than almost any other activity in society. Every weekend, more than 80,000 football matches take place in Germany alone and millions of fans flock to stadiums. These stadiums are part of society. Even on weekdays, football is a topic in every workplace, on the daily commute, in pubs and restaurants. Football thus offers a point of reference in people’s daily lives.
Sport, and football in particular, can constitute a very important platform for a project against racism, discrimination and anti-Semitism. The special heterogeneous target group and the possibility of involving municipal partners and sponsors in a broad coalition via the clubs offer unique potential. In this way, leveraging the power of football against anti-Semitism can help defeat this scourge, both in the specific context of football but also on a societal level.
Anti-racist work has the longest tradition of activity in sport. As early as 1996, a successful project was launched in England with the “Show Racism the Red Card” campaign, which was mainly based on testimonials from famous players. Subsequently, supporters and associations developed campaigns and projects on racism in other countries. In recent years, the fight against homophobia has gained momentum and is supported by more and more associations, supporters and clubs. Activities on the topic of anti-Semitism have so far mainly come from a few fan scenes that deal specifically with the topic, as well as a few clubs that also present their work to the outside world.
In 2023, the World Jewish Congress will launch new activities with its partners and institutionalize its commitment to combating anti-Semitism in sport under an umbrella institution, the Center for Combating Anti-Semitism in Sport and Society. This initiative will be launched during the side panel in March 2023, as part of the session of the UN Human Rights Council, also to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Supported by UNESCO
