ABSTRACT

Though their participation had a much longer history, successful black players began to appear frequently for some of England and Scotland’s largest clubs in the mid-1970s. By the early 1980s, black players were a fixture at most clubs and began to be widely integrated into the sport. Several neo-nationalist groups – often labelled or self-identified as neo-fascists – responded with vitriol to their expanded involvement, contributing to the creation of a wide range of racist discourses and activities. In response, football clubs, grass-roots organizations and the British government expanded their programme for the sanitization of football to include a new problem. In addition to the growing violence of supporters, a wide range of authorities and a growing proportion of the public worried about racism within football. Football racism not only questioned peaceful integration in post-colonial Britain, but also built on existing anxieties about lawlessness and disorder within the nation’s most popular sport. Much of this unfolded during the Conservative administration of Margaret Thatcher, when anti-immigrant ideologies were concretized within an increasingly conservative political landscape. Though Thatcher often lambasted rowdy football supporters for their failure to comply with law-andorder, the most significant battles for control of the football environment occurred among several smaller grass-roots organizations. As the final part of this book will demonstrate, race and football intersected in multiple ways, providing opportunities for politicking for a wide range of neo-nationalist and anti-racist groups.