The 2026 FIFA World Cup has drawn attention to the persistent racial stereotypes concerning African footballers. Specifically, Real Madrid and Brazil forward Vinícius Júnior has experienced repeated instances of racist abuse. During a press conference addressing the emotional burden of constant racist chants from fans, he displayed significant distress.
As the FIFA 2026 World Cup takes place in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, issues of racism remain in focus. Reports indicate racial harassment of players and even African referees. The authors argue that racial stereotypes continue to shape the perception of African footballers: coaches, scouts, and sports scientists often emphasize their physical attributes while ignoring technical abilities, tactical intelligence, and general football skills.
The situation escalated after a Somali referee was denied entry into the US, as well as due to a surge in online racist attacks following matches of the 2026 World Cup. Thus, racism and exclusion in football have once again become subjects of discussion.
Although overt anti-Black racism in football is widely reported and studied, important structural problems remain underexplored. The 2026 World Cup provides an ideal opportunity to analyze the deeply rooted yet often hidden logic of the global football player market, which reproduces racial stereotypes about Black athletes.
Assumptions about the inherent characteristics of African athletes persist in transfers. They are often viewed as physically strong athletes with natural talent who lack discipline and technical refinement. However, these supposed traits are far from natural—they are actively cultivated.
One of the least obvious places where this occurs is in West African football academies, which aim to provide opportunities for young players but effectively reinforce stereotypes. Researchers, a sports sociologist, and an anthropologist studying football migration from West Africa to Europe since 2014 worked with aspiring footballers in Nigeria, Senegal, and Cameroon. Recently, they surveyed coaches in four Nigerian football academies, as well as 24 football migrants in Europe.
Joint findings showed that racial inequality still exists in world football. It can be found in the dreams of young footballers, the business models of football academies, and the demands of the global market. Notably, this inequality is often reproduced through practices presented positively—as opportunity, empowerment, or inclusion—rather than solely through overt racism, making racial inequality in football particularly entrenched because it is realized through strategies that many perceive as a path to social mobility.
In West Africa, football has become one of the most attractive paths for youth wishing to move abroad. Faced with a lack of stable economic prospects and evident global inequality, young people seek 'greener pastures' overseas, hoping to earn money and support their families. Although footballers travel worldwide, including Asia and the Gulf countries, Europe remains the most desirable destination due to the immense popularity of elite European leagues and the visibility of African footballers in European clubs. There is a notion that European football offers better chances for social and economic mobility.
In Western Cameroon, Europe is often referred to as the 'white man's country.' This generalizing term for the 'West' carries ambiguous connotations. Young people see it as a place of prosperity, comfort, and economic opportunity, but also of anti-Black racism, overwork, and inequality. Many consider it a key destination, often inaccessible due to strict border control policies, yet one that holds opportunities.
The myths that Africans are naturally gifted athletes persist in the global market. For instance, one European coach interviewed in Cameroon emphasized that Africans possess immense talent, having 'rhythm in their blood,' but allegedly lacked discipline. He constantly compared European footballers—presumed untalented but diligent—with African players who were supposedly very talented but unsuited for hard work.
In Nigeria, the coaches interviewed regularly insisted that Africans possess 'innate' athletic abilities. The most prominent myths concerned physical strength and endurance, supposedly inherent to African bodies. Furthermore, talented young players were often labeled as 'raw diamonds'—raw material with potential needing refinement. These labels create disturbing parallels with images of Africa as a region full of natural minerals ready for exploitation. These examples are not isolated or anecdotal; racial stereotypes about African athletes have been repeatedly documented in research and are not limited to football, as similar myths are recorded in many disciplines such as boxing, rugby, American football, and long-distance running.
These stereotypes profoundly influence how football talent develops on the continent. Interviews revealed that football academies in Nigeria deliberately cultivate footballers who conform to global stereotypes of the Black athlete to create value in the world market. They claim that physical qualities are the most important criterion for foreign scouts when selecting African footballers. Therefore, academies strategically select young people who are physically strong, tall, and highly enduring, potentially overlooking players with high technical skills and tactical understanding.
In one case, an academy spent years developing players but faced difficulties selling smaller players despite their technical skill. Eventually, the team was disbanded, and a new group of youths was selected who had to be at least six feet tall. It was discovered that academies also model player development based on successful African national teams. They may focus on finding and developing defensive midfielders—a position that benefits from exceptional physical strength—or nurturing physically imposing forwards like Romelu Lukaku or Victor Osimhen. Academies claim to exploit and create a niche in the global market that is particularly suited for Africans.
This process is significant because football academies, coaches, and agents play a key role as gatekeepers in the global market. They promise young footballers, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, empowerment and inclusion through access to global markets. The global market is vast and complex, and not all academies reproduce these tropes—at least not consciously. Nevertheless, racial stereotypes clearly persist and exert a deep influence on the selection and development of athletes.
For a long time, leading postcolonial thinkers developed theories about the racial ordering of the world economy. American political scientist Cedric Robinson used the term 'racial capitalism' to explain how capitalism was built on the foundation of colonialism, slavery, and racial differentiation, leading to the exploitation of racial groups to extract profit based on imagined racial differences. Indian feminist critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak wrote about 'strategic essentialism' to show how people cope with these structures when marginalized groups sometimes use simplified representations of themselves to gain recognition or improve their opportunities.
These ideas are extremely relevant today and necessary for understanding how racial inequality persists in sports. World football demonstrates how markets commodify bodies, turn difference itself into a commodity, and continue to fuel this inequality. It also shows how people react to this and how conversations about empowerment can reinforce inequality. These issues become visible through sport, but they are not limited to it nor are they inevitable.
Social media displayed a more aggressive tone during the group stage of the World Cup. A study conducted by FIFA demonstrates a strong increase in virtual attacks compared to the 2022 tournament, including messages with racist content.
The data is the result of monitoring carried out by the Social Media Protection Service (SMPS), a tool created to track posts involving players, coaches, referees, and national teams, as reported by Reuters. More than six million posts and comments were processed by the FIFA system, representing a volume 33% higher than seen in the Qatar World Cup.
After an initial screening, about 225 thousand publications were examined by moderators. At the end of this process, 89 thousand messages were categorized as abusive, a number that is 13 times greater than what was recorded in 2022. FIFA clarifies that the SMPS aims to protect professionals and their followers from offensive and discriminatory content, and it is available to all teams, players, coaches, and referees participating in FIFA tournaments.
In practice, the service operates in several phases: it automatically detects offensive messages, directs cases for human evaluation, blocks racist, discriminatory, or threatening comments, and refers more serious situations for investigation.
A particularly worrying aspect was the increase in messages motivated by racism. These constituted 11% of all identified abuses, an index 3% higher than observed in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup. FIFA itself described this scenario as a 'significant increase in objectively worse and more offensive material' published on digital platforms. Throughout the competition, approximately 181 thousand hate comments remained hidden from the official accounts of the national teams.
The participation of 48 national teams contributed to the expansion of the amount of content under surveillance. More than two million comments were submitted for moderation, encompassing spam, bot-sent messages, and content from fake profiles. This volume is four times greater than that recorded in the previous edition. About a thousand accounts were forwarded for more detailed investigations. FIFA informed that, as part of the evolution of SMPS, the service collects evidence for law enforcement authorities, having identified over 100 cases that meet the legal requirements to initiate proceedings against those involved.
The effects of these attacks were noted immediately after the Netherlands' elimination by Morocco in penalties. Players such as Justin Kluivert, Quinten Timber, and Crysencio Summerville began to be targeted by racist attacks online. The report released by FIFA consolidates these incidents along with the data collected by SMPS during the group stage, illustrating the magnitude of the abusive messages recorded throughout the event.
