The punishment for racism is terribly mild – VG

“Exclusion from the Color Line stadium until the 2021 season”, was the conclusion from the AaFK management, after having identified a person who was behind the racist incitement against Pellegrino after the match against Kristiansund.

“We at Aalesund Football Club have taken the matter very seriously,” says club director Geir S. Vik in a short press release. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find a particular agreement between that statement and how mild the punishment actually became.

A deterrent function is generally a key reason why punishment is used as a tool. For an individual, the expected punishment must be perceived as so negative that one refrains from future actions. At the social level, what is called “general prevention” means that the threat of punishment contributes to the majority of people refraining from doing something they shouldn’t.

When it comes to football and racism, attitude work is of course important, but at the same time it does not escape the fact that it is necessary to act when crossing borders that should not be crossed. And here, unfortunately, Aalesund has been strangely kind to one of his own.

Where is the deterrent effect when you can get away with such a mildly severe reaction?

What kind of signal effect does the result send?

Nobody knows what will happen to the Norwegian football stands next year, but in the final analysis there will hardly be any real exclusion for the fan in question, if there are still strict restrictions due to the crown.

But completely independent of the virus situation, an exclusion of more than one season from home games appears to be disproportionate to the severity of the case.

AaFK has not responded in detail beyond the press release, so we know little about the details behind the assessments. But a basis for punishment for a condition that seems to be recognized has been found, and then measurement is something we have to discuss in detail.

It has not been many months since Norwegian sport received a strong tightening from a political point of view, as the fight against racism had not been high enough on the agenda. As a result, a working group appointed by the ministry presented concrete contributions. Just a few days ago, NIF launched a guide for work against racism and discrimination in sport.

From soccer teams, over time we have seen various campaigns and nice words, and there is no reason to doubt that there is a genuine desire to get rid of a non-German. But now it is even the case that “the proof of the pudding is in the eating,” as the English say, and translated in this context, it means that how you handle tough cases is crucial to credibility.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Pellegrino reacts as strongly as he does after the consequences were not clarified.

He deserved better. Norwegian football deserved better. And whoever was behind it deserved a significantly longer exclusion from the stands of Norwegian football.

In many areas of life it is good to be kind.

This is not such an area.

Correction: This sentence was eliminated from the case after a clarification of the NFF where they affirm that the council did not go to the sentence and that the case should go to the impeachment commission of the NFF: “And what does it do with the credibility of the general fight against racism in Norwegian football that the choice whether to exclude until the 2021 season will be based, among other things, on “advice from the Norwegian Football Association.” The change was made on 7 October 2020 5:48 pm

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