The following lines are not about football and its technicalities, nor about the varying levels of the 48 teams participating in the current World Cup.
Nor are they about refereeing errors, VAR rooms, or US President Donald Trump's intervention to overturn a red card. Rather, the focus will be on a specific point: the growing number of Black players in European teams in particular, and Western teams in general — a development that has dealt a severe blow to racist and far-right currents in the West.
Is it not strange that the majority of players in some European squads have become Black, winning numerous championships for those countries, while some of those countries' own citizens are deeply racist? Does this paradox not strike at the very heart of racist ideology?
This is not a new subject, but it has become very noticeable in recent years.
And it has become even more evident in the latest World Cup.
France, for example, entered the current tournament with 21 players of African origin, England with 15, and Germany with 9. This is a recurring pattern across a large number of European teams — to the point that one football commentator remarked sarcastically that what we are watching now in the United States, Canada, and Mexico is not the World Cup we have always known, but the Africa Cup of Nations.
The number of players participating in the current World Cup is approximately 1,248, with 156 players in the African squads, the majority of whom are Black.
Sports researchers estimate that the number of Black players may reach 450 — a share of 36%, or roughly one-third of all participants. This estimate remains unofficial, however, as FIFA does not classify teams on the basis of skin colour.
According to data and statistics from Europe's major clubs, there are 14 Black players at Paris Saint-Germain, accounting for 55%; 15 at Chelsea at roughly the same proportion; 11 at Manchester City at 40%; 9 at Real Madrid at 20%; and 6 at Bayern Munich at 20%. Similar proportions are found at Borussia Dortmund, Atlético Madrid, Inter Milan, Juventus, Benfica, Porto, and Salzburg.
The overall proportion of Black players in Europe's major clubs ranges between 28% and 35%, and is higher in French, English, Belgian, and Austrian clubs.
The majority of these players were either born in European countries as second- or third-generation immigrants, or obtained European nationality on the strength of their remarkable footballing talent.
As is well known, 1998 represented a major shock to the racist current in France, a country that has long witnessed — and continues to witness — the clear principles of populist nationalist right-wing movements, particularly the National Front party, which calls for the expulsion of immigrants. But the biggest blow dealt to that party and its ilk came when the French national team won the 1998 World Cup, with most of its players of African or Caribbean origin — among them Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira, and Thierry Henry.
The French extremists who champion the slogan of expelling immigrants were shocked to find that those who had delivered victory for them were precisely these Black players.
This very important example from France after 1998 became a symbol of the debate over identity and integration in France and the West whenever right-wing propaganda against immigrants and Black and coloured people intensifies. White citizens in these countries are confronted with the fact that Black players are the reason for their joy and their championship victories, whether at club or national level.
In 1998, some said that Zinedine Zidane and his teammates had knocked out Jean-Marie Le Pen and scored a historic goal in the net of French extremism. But more accurately, the extremist current continued in Europe and achieved good results in a number of European elections.
Another important piece of evidence is that racist chants in stadium stands continue to be directed against Black players — among them Real Madrid's Brazilian player Vinícius Júnior, who is routinely subjected to abuse from European crowds, and even from white players.
This bullying prompted FIFA to issue what has been called the Prestialì rule. The basis of this sanction is: