ABSTRACT
Introduction The aetiology and manifestation of racism in sport has been subject to significant study. The professional sport workplace is one that has been labelled as a ‘racially polluted environment’ (Williams 1996, 314) and a hostile working environment. This article provides a comparison as to how incidents of alleged racist abuse (and other forms of hate speech) are engaged with between elite-level participants in different football codes, specifically Australian Rules (AU) football and English football. This primarily involves incidents between opposing players but also includes other individuals, such as referees. Regulation is both by the relevant sports-based disciplinary procedures and through legal intervention.
