Does soccer suffer from ‘cancel culture’?

• Suhayla Halouchi

  editor online

Politics and sports: they are two completely different worlds, which increasingly seem to be intertwined in recent years. Yesterday, soccer club Excelsior announced that Redouan el Yaakoubi is no longer a captain because of his refusal to put on the OneLove band.

El Yaakoubi previously told sports channel ESPN he preferred to wear the band with “respect” on it, “I think respect for everyone is important, we have to respect each other’s values. Excelsior subsequently stripped him of the captain’s armband, in part because of “noise and misunderstanding” and a situation “that is not desirable for both.”

Excelsior took a different stance on this than Feyenoord, for example, when Feyenoord captain Kökcu refused to wear the OneLove band; Kökcu remained “just” captain.

Soccer association KNVB called the OneLove band into being as a symbol of connection, and against racism and discrimination. The rainbow colors represent lhbti acceptance. But the band thus evokes discomfort among some players.

This trend is more widely seen in the sports world, with athletes reluctant to speak out for certain political statements if they are rigged by an umbrella sports organization.

Max Verstappen in 2020, for example, refused to kneel for the #WeRaceAsOne initiative, which spoke out against racism and discrimination. During a press conference, he announced that everyone should be able to express themselves in their own way. Political statements within sports also no longer seem limited to individual beliefs of the athletes themselves.

Cees Wijburg, who provides media training to soccer clubs and professionals in the industry, recognizes this. “Nowadays there is a trend of sports organizations expressing themselves politically and sometimes obliging their players to do so. Excelsior wants to radiate unity and solidarity because other clubs do it too. Typical that Dutch herd behavior.”

That soccer clubs support such actions should be possible, Wijburg says. But he “definitely” disagrees with taking away El Yaakoubi’s captain’s armband. “Support for such an action should come from your heart and perception. The OneLove band has nothing to do with soccer and that captain’s band does. I think it is wrong to take it off.”

According to Wijburg, soccer clubs should not mandate political statements to their players for this reason. “We have to stop the prevarication, the eternal prevarication. If one doesn’t want to participate in that, that doesn’t make them hateful. It’s just their own view.”

Wijburg also finds the negative reactions to El Yaakoubi’s choice dangerous: “We are very much condemning and canceling. To immediately put someone away as homophobic. Those are very heavy allegations. That’s framing, which is also hip and modern these days.”

By no means all the comments are critical of the footballer. Several people online are expressing support for his choice. These include influencer and radio DJ Youssef Koukouh. He criticized Excelsior’s decision yesterday on his social media channels, where more than 300,000 people follow him.

According to Wijburg, the fact that Excelsior is taking off El Yaakoubi’s captain’s armband after all is mainly about “loss of face” for the club. In this he mentions the so-called cancel culture. “Nowadays we are forced to participate in anything and everything. And if you don’t, you get cancelled.”

“Clubs are afraid of that, too,” Koukouh adds. “Who think ‘our figurehead, our captain, don’t support this, then we are afraid people will soon think our club is homophobic.'”

According to Koukouh, soccer and politics should remain separate. “When it comes to El Yaakoubi, but also about Verstappen, I say: that’s your right. You don’t have to prove to the outside world what you stand for. At the local soccer club, where I volunteer, there is no politics either. That ruins the game.”

Like Wijburg, he believes discrimination and racism should remain discussable. “But you shouldn’t go overboard with that. It is absolutely not only people who can identify with his norms and values, or only Muslims or Moroccans who support El Yaakoubi. You can already see that after my statement yesterday. A lot of people think so.”

In fact, numerous activists and human rights organizations are pleased with the introduction of the OneLove banner and Excelsior’s steadfastness in doing so. The club is thus speaking out firmly against discrimination and homophobia in the soccer world, they feel.