Soccer Racism in Mexico

In September 2014, Ronaldinho, the former Brazil and Barcelona star who won the FIFA player of the year two times, joined the Mexican local club Queretaro. Even before playing his first match along with his new teammates, Ronaldinho was subject of various racist attacks.

According to Abc News, Mexico has always had a long history of racism. Since the Mexican revolution, the country has always been deeply divided and one part of Mexico has always been in conflict with another: urban vs. rural, rich vs. poor, and dark-skinned vs. dark or light skinned individuals. While in Europe, soccer racism involves whites insulting blacks; soccer racism in Mexico mostly includes dark-skinned individuals verbally or physically insulting at other dark-skinned people. This issue can be very similar to the Hutu and Tutsi conflict that, even though sharing many similar features (including skin color), still shared many racial and ethnic conflicts between the twos.

One of the major attacks was from a former official of the Queretaro state government, Carlos Trevino. Trevino explicitly attacked Ronaldinho on Facebook even before playing his first game with the new team. On Facebook, Trevino wrote, “Seriously, I try to be tolerant, but I hate football and the idiotic phenomenon it produces. I hate it even more because people food the streets, meaning it took me forever to get home. And all this to see an ape; a Brazilian [Ronaldinho], but an ape just the same.” After being heavily criticized, Trevino apologized to the club and to Ronaldinho about his racist and inconvenient comment. Not surprisingly, he received no punishment, underlining how Mexican football officials have yet not properly dealt with the huge problem of racism.

Decio de Maria, president of Liga MX (Mexico’s top league), openly argued that racism is not a problem, not in Mexico nor on soccer fields. According to president de Maria, “[Mexico] is a country where we use nicknames. On the streets, they single people out. There are profanities that, when they are said, do not mean that they literally mean. Calling someone by a nickname is not discrimination. Those who cross the line should be taken to court.” However, to what extent is “calling someone by a nickname not discrimination”? And does racism only involve physical aggression? With his statement, de Maria is missing many important ideas of what racism and discrimination really are and how they are affecting individuals in our society.

However, despite de Maria’s involvement, Valeria Berumen, important official of a Mexican government office, testified against racism involving soccer and racism in general. According to Berumen, “there are two engines that push discrimination. One is football. The other is the Internet. They have the ability to spread positive messages, but they also can spread discrimination, racism and xenophobia.”

Early this year, the Mexican league decided to adopt the FIFA’s rules involving racism and discrimination. In fact, according to FIFA, referees have the right to stop a game if racist issues take place. If these incident(s) continue, the referees can take the team off the field for 10 minutes. If persisting, they have the right to completely stop or suspend the match. However, so far, Mexican referees have not acted under any of the rules implemented, suggesting the need for further radical changes.

Unfortunately, Ronaldinho’s case is one of the many cases involving racism. For instance, in February 2014, fans of Pumas in Mexico City chanted monkey noises towards a Colombian player. The year before, an Ecuadoran player was the target of monkey noises too.

This article is very significant because it demonstrates that racism is present not only in the United States, between whites and blacks, but also outside of the United States, between individuals who have the same skin color. Moreover, it demonstrates that racism is not only present in our economy, health system or education system but also in sports. Unfortunately, all around the world, players from team sports and from different racial and ethnic backgrounds are constantly victims of verbal or physical aggression involving racism and little is done to diminish this.