Italy’s referees punish more dark-skinned footballers than light

Referees in Italy’s top football league give more yellow and red cards to Black and darker-skinned players than to their light-skinned teammates, research shows.

Officials in Serie A awarded an average of 20% more fouls per season against darker-skinned players from 2009 to 2019, with 11% more yellow cards and 16% more red cards.

But during the Covid-19 pandemic, when matches were played in empty stadiums, there was no bias in the way referees treated players. This demonstrates that authorities should prioritise banning fans responsible for racist incidents, the researchers say.

Many Italian clubs have large numbers of far-right supporters; players, including Romelu Lukaku, Kalidou Koulibaly and Mario Balotelli, have regularly been racially abused. This season, Serie A authorities have launched investigations into racist chanting by Lazio and Napoli fans.

The researchers, Beatrice Magistro and Morgan Wack, said they plan to examine other European leagues.

Vinícius Júnior, the Real Madrid winger from Brazil, has been targeted five times this season in Spain’s La Liga, while Birmingham City goalkeeper Neil Etheridge was racially abused last month during an FA Cup game against Blackburn. Last season, 183 incidents were reported to the anti-discrimination body Kick It Out in English professional football.

Magistro and Wack studied data on every Serie A match between 2009 and 2021 for their paper in the journal Sociology, published by the British Sociological Association.They analysed data from FootyStats, WhoScored and FBref on tackles, fouls and cards against skin- tone data from the Football Manager video game. Developed by British company Sports Interactive, the game is used by professional clubs to scout players and is