System Dynamics model to investigate Racism in Football

Racism in sport events and particularly in football is not a new phenomenon. There have been periods where it seemed to have vanished, through efforts to prohibit racist behavior from and amongst the fans and governmental attempts to prevent racism through legislation. However, evidence suggest it remained. Furthermore, it takes an appallingly wide range of forms and it is a problem for all European countries. Finally, it remains deeply rooted and pervasive in contemporary amateur football in countryside villages and semi-rural areas, which possess almost exclusively white populations. The objective of the project was to study the current perceptions of people with regards to racism in football, applying the discipline of Systems Thinking with the purpose of understanding the structure of the process that generates racism and conducting anti-racism campaign focused on football academies in the partner countries. Workshops/sessions has been organized with experts in the field with the purpose of designing a tool that could be used to get better insights into how racism in football emerges and where are the potential areas where policy makers could use as leverage for effective countermeasures. In conclusion a system dynamics prototype model has been developed, tested and validated for Italian context