Just after midnight on February 1st, football journalist Fabrizio Romano reported Jerome Boateng had arrived in Salerno in Italy to undergo a medical for Italian Serie A side Salernitana, shy of 3 years after the German defender was found guilty of assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
When I read this, it reminded me of a similar situation. Another footballer, Mason Greenwood, had audio leaked in 2022 where he could be clearly heard assaulting his partner. Despite this, he is currently playing in the top tier of Spanish football for Getafe, being “housed in a luxury villa near the club’s training ground” according to Football Espana.
The Greenwood case, along with the recent transfer of Boateng got me thinking. Can football clubs be ethical in this day and age or is it just about profit?
Mason Greenwood with Manchester United in 2019. (Matthew Ashton/AMA/Getty Images)
The good
In 2021, the FIFA Ethics and Regulations Watch organisation named premier league club Fulham as the most ethical club at the time. According to the Fulham FC website, this was based on data in areas such as diversity, inclusion and social responsibilities.
The club also has a supporters group called “Fulham For All” which is pretty self explanatory. The group positively impacts “Fulham’s EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) work across the communities surrounding the Club and Foundation.”
East of England is Germany, where, to compete in the top two tiers of German football, clubs must abide by the ‘50+1’ rule where fans, instead of investors, essentially have the final say in how their club is run. This prevents situations where clubs lose support because an outside investor makes a controversial decision that the fans don’t support.
German football also has low ticket prices, making top tier football matches accessible to anyone. Additionally, during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the German National Team took a bold stance. Before a team photo, every player put their hands over his mouth in support of human rights and the LGBTQ+ community.
These two situations are the main ones that I can recall. Sure, Fulham and the German national team are not ethically perfect, no one is. But the point is they’re trying to make football more inclusive for everyone. It is the world’s game, after all.
Manchester City lifts the 2023 FA Cup Trophy. (Photo by Justin Setterfield – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
The bad
I feel like I don’t even need to dive deep into the bad side of clubs ignoring ethical concerns and chasing profit instead as there are so many instances of it – starting with Manchester City.
In the same report where FIFA recognised Fulham as the most ethical Premier League club, Manchester City was ranked the lowest club in terms of ethics. This was largely based on their owner, who has strong links with Abu Dhabi. Due to these links, the club ranked low in relation to “LGBT issues” and “women’s rights” as well as losing environmental points due to their sponsorship with the Etihad airline.
Further examples of clubs on the bad side of ethics include Manchester United’s handling of Mason Greenwood, as mentioned earlier, and Bayern Munich’s stance on Jerome Boateng. The German club allowed Boateng to train with them and even considered signing him after he was found guilty in court. Additionally, many people boycotted the FIFA World Cup 2022 due to it taking place in Qatar, a country infamous for reported violations of human rights.
The verdict
Fulham and the German national team are only a few examples of football clubs and countries taking a stand for social issues and making the game more inclusive for everyone. The Premier League has also shown signs of social responsibility, promoting awareness campaigns including ‘rainbow laces’. Unfortunately, these stories have been largely overshadowed by irresponsible and despicable acts like those of Greenwood and Boateng.
Fulham players celebrate an EPL win. (Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)
In my opinion, clubs and countries should be doing better to be more socially responsible. It is proven with real examples that it’s not hard to be ethical and moral while also gaining profit, but I’m sure many teams would incorrectly argue otherwise. Maybe they would argue that the maximum amount of profit can’t be achieved while simultaneously being ethical, which in turn brings up an important question:
Does making the maximum amount of profit wave away a team’s social responsibility? A team’s actions has a substantial impact on their local community.
Football has a responsibility to be ethical and responsible. It is a sport that prides itself on being the world’s game but we must ask ourselves, is it really for everyone at the moment? I’m not completely sure.
Brendan
Roar Pro
Certainly, the men’s game has a long way to go. Ideally players should feel comfortable enough to be themselves, while also maintaining tolerance & respect for others. It’s a bumpy road, but I believe the women’s game has recently grown in leaps & bounds. I see the Matilda’s team as leaders, which I greatly admire.
Tim Carter
Roar Pro
I would argue that there are very few openly gay players in the men's game, and that that is a blight on the inclusivity of the club environment. You are right to point out that there are a number of sponsors and stakeholders with dubious histories.
Brendan
Roar Pro
A contentious issue. There’s lots of proud LGBTIQA+ players these days. Famous, confident & inspiring. Most financially label themselves as “Nike athletes” on Instagram, first & foremost. Do the same fierce athletes acknowledge the shoe manufacture’s controversial history?
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
The aim of corruption is to get money into ones own personal pocket. Blatter got in trouble for giving Platini money from FIFA. In the past its been about people stealing money from football confederations from broadcast rights. Now Saudis and Qataris you can forget about stealing from your own organisation, just do what they want and they give you a swiss bank account.
chris1
Roar Rookie
Sure if you are talking about the disclosed amounts that makes it seem like everyone is operating on a fair playing field. But we know that's not the case. The oil money seeps its way into FIFA's coffers that isn't made public and certainly not disclosed to you or I.
Adam
Roar Guru
FIFA has been drunk on money for decades...it just took them this long to realise the how big the rivers of money were in the middle east...
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Where does FIFA get the billions in oil money? They get less money from the Middle East, because most of the wealth is concentrated in a few hands and they make money from broadcast rights. France were the ones who got the massive gas bribe from Qatar. The rest you had a few people get a few million from Qatar and no one else benefited. Its really foreign governments that have been making the decisions. FIFA made less in ticket sales and corporate hospitatlity in Qatar than they wouold have in Europe though this was offset by lower costs and local sponsotship Australia actually earnt FIFA an extra fortune through the womens world cup. Broadcast rights for the womens world cup were under 200 million. Australian ticket sales mainly to a lesser extent NZ corporate hospitality got them 500 million. The difference is now there are more committee members and the vote is no longer secret. Effectively Australia has had the media, politicans and even the football federation acting against Australias own interests at the behest of Saudi Arabia, the AFL and others by not bidding. The expense of a bid is chump change, its just pure propaganda with the amount they have spent on Olympic and Commonwealth bids.
chris1
Roar Rookie
Brains you keep saying FA are complicit in the Saudi WC. How so? Could it be, that they saw it was futile even attempting to put in a token bid. FIFA is now fully drunk on money and they don't even attempt to hide it. Infantino makes Blatter looks like Mother Teresa. Its laughable that FIFA promotes this financial fair play and then they take the billions in oil money.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Football doesn't make profits, because of a lack of wage controls and competition for players. Interesting you talk about Qatar and UAE but not Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has the world cup, the whole of the Australian media are complicit in this decision , along with Football Australia. If you have a problem with the world cup in Qatar, surely the sensible thing it to make the easy decision of never giving them the world cup in the first place. Saudi Arabia is even worse, yet we saw no bid from Australia to make sure Saudi Arabia and it was a decision against the national interest economically as well.
Steven Harris
It's the dollar..Tell me Kirk do you work in D.E.I or some H.R dept.