ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationships between sports, race, and cosmopolitanism. The discussion highlights the complexities involved, as demonstrated by the July 2021 victory of Italy over a diverse England team to win the European Soccer Championship. The story showed fans rising beyond parochialism: minority populations in England cheered for a sport that is often associated with England’s white working class, and continental Europeans overlooked their own national identities to cheer for the Italian team in a post-Brexit environment. The chapter argues that racism is especially noticeable and controversial in times of rapid cultural change, as demonstrated by recent European and American political interactions with sport.
