Athletes are speaking out, governing bodies setting standards. Sport once saw the worst problems, but now it offers solutions
Here it comes again: what they used to call the English problem. In Munich, England football fans are arrested for making Nazi salutes and damaging a hotel room before Tuesday’s Nations League tie with Germany. Before the match, manager Gareth Southgate reveals his task of preparing his players to take penalties is now complicated by the racist abuse they received after spot-kicks were missed in the European championship final.
Against that backdrop, the idea that sport could play a leading role in dragging a reluctant world into a truly non-racial future may seem a ridiculous fantasy. And yet, that is happening. In the two years since the murder of George Floyd, sport has taken more meaningful steps on this long and tortuous journey than any other sector of society.
Mihir Bose is the author of Dreaming The Impossible: The Battle to Create a Non-Racial Sports World