Discrimination in football: Fans 'have forgotten how to behave' since lockdown
- Published
Signs with the slogan No Room for Racism are regularly shown at Premier League grounds
Football fans have "forgotten how to behave" since the Covid-19 lockdowns, says Liverpool's equality manager.
The Reds' equality, diversity and inclusion manager Rishi Jain said there has been a "huge increase" in offensive and discriminatory behaviour at games.
In January, it was announced football-related arrests across the top five English leagues are at their highest levels in years.
"I think people have forgotten how to behave," Jain said.
"There has been a huge increase in discriminatory and offensive behaviour, not just at Anfield."
Speaking at the Liverpool Against Racism conference, Jain said the "biggest challenge" was fans re-learning how to act in public.
In its most recent figures in 2020, referring to the season before lockdown, anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out said there had been a 42% increase in reports of discrimination in English professional football.
A report into the Euro 2020 final violence found "ticketless, drunken and drugged-up thugs" could have caused death at Wembley last summer.
Last week, Manchester United condemned fans who chanted "completely unacceptable" songs about the Hillsborough tragedy.
Earlier this month, Manchester City apologised after some fans disturbed a minute's silence marking the 33rd anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster during their FA Cup semi-final defeat by Liverpool at Wembley.
The Premier League launched a No Room For Racism Action Plan in 2021.
The conference, held on Tuesday, is part of a week-long festival set up by Mayor of Liverpool Joanne Anderson in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Anderson was the first black woman to be a directly elected mayor in the UK.
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