NaDiRa short study: Stereotypes in elite sport

Racist stacking in German elite sport

National Monitoring of Discrimination and Racism (NaDiRa)

Project team members: Felicia Boma Lazaridou

Running time October 2020 until December 2020
Status Completed project

Project team:

  • Tina Nobis
  • Felicia Lazaridou
  • Jannick Philp
  • Adina Ludwig
  • Sarah Grun
  • Sebastian Lejeune

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Project description:

Our pilot study on racist stacking in German top-class sport aimed to analyse for the first time how playing positions are distributed in the men's football Bundesliga. Racist stacking refers to a phenomenon from team sports: Black athletes are underrepresented in central, tactical and leading playing positions and overrepresented in decentralised and physical playing positions due to racist attributions. This phenomenon, which is quite well researched in the US, has not yet been studied in Germany. 

Results:

If racist stereotypes about the athletic superiority and intellectual inferiority of Black players are reflected in the occupation of playing positions, this would mean: Black players are underrepresented in the positions of goalkeeper and in defensive and central midfield and overrepresented in the defensive and offensive wing positions and in forward. We tested this hypothesis.

The result: Racist stacking is clearly recognisable in the first and second Bundesliga men's football leagues in the 2020/2021 season. Although every fifth player in the first and second Bundesliga is Black, there is not a single Black Bundesliga goalkeeper. Black players are slightly underrepresented in central and defensive midfield. It is particularly noticeable that the position of the offensive outfield players is unequally occupied. Here, Black players are clearly overrepresented with a share of 37%. In addition, Black players are also slightly overrepresented in the outer defence and in the forward line.

Surprising insights:

There are indeed quite a number of prominent Black Bundesliga players. But what we did not expect is that even every fifth Bundesliga player is Black. What we also find remarkable here is that it can be assumed that many Black players were not signed up from abroad but were socialised in Germany. Our study shows that about 41% of Black players have German citizenship.

Furthermore, it was surprising for us how clearly recognisable racist stacking is in some playing positions. In the 2020/2021 season, there was not a single Black goalkeeper, but a disproportionate number of Black outfield players.

Significance for practice:

The results of the pilot study could initiate a sports association, socio-political and academic debate on German top-level sport - precisely because they reveal subtle, structural forms of racism in professional football that have so far been little addressed. In this way, the results can possibly also contribute to an increased sensitivity for this topic and to the development of countermeasures.

In addition, the pilot study stimulates further application-oriented research on racism in sport, which can finally provide fundamental orientation knowledge for a field that has hardly been researched in Germany so far.

Publications:

Media reports & publications:

Short studies in preparation for the Racism Monitor:

In order to prepare a comprehensive Racism Monitor, DeZIM called on scholars from the DeZIM research community in 2020 to develop innovative study ideas. These should extend existing research projects, pursue new and innovative approaches or build an infrastructure to research racism. By 2021, more than 120 researchers at the six locations of the DeZIM research community had conducted a total of 34 short studies. These are divided into six thematic priorities:

  • Health system
  • Education system and labour market
  • Institutional racism
  • Dealing with experiences of racism
  • Participation and the media
  • Racist ideologies and attitudes

Funding: Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Third-party funding)