Title

This article examines the potential reasons why anti-racist, sexist and in general bigotry campaigns fail to see success in the world of football, especially the English Premier League. In this paper I explore football’s roots, recent attempts at eliminating bigotry, statistics related to hate speech and acts, potential reasons why hatred remains prevalent today despite some the anti-hate campaigns running for over ten years, and the range of possible solutions that may be worth investigating specifically in a football-fan setting. I argue that while awareness campaigns do bring results, for instance ‘Kick It Out!’ that encouraged more people to report and speak out against racism, I make a case for why this is simply not enough. Each incident sparks more hate speech and subsequent hateful acts. This then is why more action-based campaigns are needed and as such, I propose three specific psychological-based interventions, which have proven effective in theoretical research and field studies, with an emphasis on the prolonged contact method. These interventions and their implications are discussed.