When Adam met Rio: conversations on racism, anti-racism and multiculturalism in the Australian Football League and English Premier League

Abstract

This article employs a 2013 televised dialogue on racism between two male, minority ethnic, global football stars – Adam Goodes of the Australian Rules code and Rio Ferdinand, an English Premier League player – for a timely, comparative and cross-cultural analysis of issues around race, ethnicity, Indigeneity, and identity, and dominant approaches to anti-racism and multiculturalism within these codes. Prior to the television interview, the Indigenous Goodes had been racially vilified by a 13-year-old female spectator during a match, and subsequently likened to King Kong by Collingwood president, Eddie McGuire. After an opponent racially slurred his brother during a 2011 match, Ferdinand initiated a protest, followed by many fellow professionals, against the perceived inaction to racism from football authorities by refusing to wear T-shirts promoting the work of anti-racist organization, Kick It Out. The article argues that, despite their differences, dialogue between the two football codes holds the potential for progressive anti-racist policy-making.

Notes

^1. The Codes Combined colloquium was an intimate two-day discussion held at Clare Hall, Cambridge University on 29–30 July 2013. The colloquium was designed to bring together practitioners and stakeholders currently working in various capacities in the field of elite football and tertiary education. The central purpose was to provide a forum where stakeholders could discuss issues evident in AFL and the EPL, concentrating on the broad themes of social justice and intercultural education. Topics for discussion included: racism in football, football as an agent for social change, diversity in football, football and community harmony, football and ethnicity, and football and education. Stakeholders from the AFL Players Association, Norwich City FC, Kick It Out, academia and publishing were also invited.

^2. Michael Long was racially vilified by Collingwood ruck Damian Monkhorst in the ANZAC Day game in 1995 between Essendon and Collingwood. Long, who is Indigenous, complained to the AFL and was further aggrieved when he felt the apology by Monkhorst was insincere. These mediation sessions led to the drafting and implementation of the AFL anti-vilification law, Rule 30, subsequently amended to Rule 35.

This article began with a series of conversations between the two authors, conducted on Skype, in January 2014. The verbatim content of the transcript was expanded and developed subsequently through e-mail exchanges. This led to a selective focus on the issues discussed here, and further scoping of the conversation through the inclusion of additional, contextual material.