Europe and racism: England leads the way in tackling the issue... while Yamal suffers from Venus’s weakness

The Premier League leads the way in terms of transparency and the number of documented reports; the ‘Kick It Out’ charity recorded a record-breaking 1,398 reports in the 2024/2025 season, a 5% increase on the 2023/2024 season, which saw 1,332 reports.

Although these figures reflect the effectiveness of the reporting system, they also show that racism remains the most common form of discrimination, accounting for over 54% of all cases.

The biggest challenge lies in ‘digital racism’, with 621 reports of online abuse recorded in the last season.

In response, the Premier League has investigated more than 3,000 cases of digital abuse since 2020, resulting in stadium bans for those involved.

By contrast, official figures in Spain paint a picture that may be misleading; in 2021, the country recorded just 639 hate crimes, compared with more than 109,000 in the UK during the same period.

This discrepancy is attributed to under-reporting in Spain, particularly among migrants who fear prosecution due to their legal status.

At an individual level, the ‘Oberaxe’ observatory revealed that Barcelona star Lamine Yamal was the primary target of online abuse in Spain in 2025, accounting for 60% of all recorded abuse, followed by Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior, with 29%.

However, Spain set a legal precedent in June 2024 with the first prison sentence (eight months) handed down to fans for racially abusing Vinícius.

In Italy, however, the problem remains linked to the ‘Ultras’ groups, with stadiums seeing repeated incidents such as the throwing of bananas and verbal abuse directed at players like Romelu Lukaku and Weston McKennie.

Despite the existence of the “Code of Sports Justice”, international experts criticise Italian sanctions, describing them as “symbolic” and failing to act as a deterrent.

In France, incidents of racism rose by 32% in 2023, influenced by the general political climate and tensions surrounding immigration issues.

To address this situation, FIFA has rolled out the “Three-Step Protocol”, which gives the referee the power to stop the match, then suspend it, and ultimately cancel it altogether if racist chants persist.