The Secretariat of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published today a factsheet bringing together ECRI’s key recommendations on preventing and combating racism and intolerance in relation to a wide range of sport-related issues, including racist and other forms of hate speech and hate crime during or around sports events.

The factsheet outlines key recommendations made by ECRI on preventing and combating racism and intolerance in and through sport, mostly drawn from its country monitoring reports adopted during the third, fourth, fifth and sixth monitoring cycles between 2006 and 2026.

ECRI has regularly stressed the need to strongly condemn and counteract all manifestations of racism and intolerance in the field of sport. At the same time, it has recognised the positive role that sports organisations and clubs, owners of sports facilities and sports leaders can play in ensuring respect for diversity. Sports activities can also help create better conditions for equal treatment and inclusion of persons belonging to groups of concern to ECRI.

The new factsheet complements ECRI’s General Policy Recommendation No. 12 on combating racism and racial discrimination in the field of sport by bringing together recommendations arising from ECRI’s country monitoring work.

The recommendations contained in the factsheet cover different aspects of prevention and accountability. They include raising awareness about the dangers of racism and intolerance in sport and implementing educational programmes aimed at preventing racist and LGBTI-phobic hate speech among sports fans. ECRI has also called for firm and unambiguous responses to manifestations of racism and intolerance at sports events, encouraged sports federations, clubs and fans’ associations to develop codes of conduct and adopt disciplinary measures, and recommended that racist and LGBTI-phobic incidents in sport be effectively investigated and, where necessary, prosecuted.

The factsheet also highlights the role that sport can play in building more inclusive societies, including through measures supporting immigrants in the field of sport and initiatives that facilitate encounters and shared interests across religious or ethnic boundaries, particularly among young people. It further addresses equal participation in sport, including the prevention of exclusion of non-citizens from sports association membership and citizenship-based restrictions in amateur sports teams.

The Factsheet is divided into six sections with references to recommendations made in country monitoring reports, namely:

• development of adequate legislative and policy frameworks;
• coordination, partnerships and research;
• awareness-raising and education;
• accountability;
• sport as a tool for building inclusive societies;
• membership and participation in sport organisations and activities.