Racist judges? Darker skin color leads to more warnings

Referees of Italy’s top football league, Serie A, are giving more yellow and red cards to black players. This is the conclusion of a study by Beatrice Magistro and Morgan Vack, writes The Guardian.

Overall, these players have 20 percent more fouls, 11 percent more yellow cards and 16 percent more red cards. All games from 2009 to 2019 were reviewed.

Computer game as a template

Magistro from the University of Turin says most European leagues rarely collect data on players’ skin color, making it difficult to study racism. For the study, 20 skin tones were identified – based on the categories of football players in the computer game “Football Manager”.

“A lot of the research so far has only been based on players’ countries of origin. Or all Europeans as white and all South Americans as non-white,” Magistro told Sociology, where the study was published. This simple distinction is problematic.

Since players tend to commit fouls more often depending on position, minutes of play, or the original league, a regression analysis was performed to moderate the factors. A black player receives an average of 3.9 yellow and 0.22 red cards per season, while a light-skinned player receives an average of 3.5 and 0.19 cards.

Are the audience to blame?

But does this show that the judges are racists? Not necessary. Magistro: “We think that the fault is not only in the referee – perhaps the audience plays a role too.”

Since there were no fans in the stadiums in the 2020/2021 season due to Corona, this year this effect was not noticeable. “But since it’s only been a year, we can’t say with certainty that racism is only due to the fans,” says Magistro.

Racist incidents involving fans are common in Italy. Several players have already complained about this, which is why Serie A also launched an investigation into Lazio and Napoli fans this season.

Many people would tell the researchers that perhaps these players were just playing more aggressively. “We looked at that as well. On the contrary, they play less aggressively, they probably know that they are more likely to be punished.”

Expected positive effects

However, for researchers, it shows that there might be something if racist fans were banned from stadiums. Magistro and Vak now want to explore other European leagues.

A similar study of the American NBA Basketball League gives researchers hope for improvement. The Brookings Institution found a similar situation there. “After they published the results, they took another close look at the situation a few years later. The effect is gone. The publication appears to have led to a fairer game,” Wack says.