A city free of both LGBTI-phobic and racist violence in sport. This is the City Council’s mission, which is aimed not just at professionals and those in charge of sports facilities but also at athletes and competition spectators. To achieve this, it has launched the Circuit for reporting LGBTI-phobic or racist violence in sports facilities and a specific training plan available for 132 municipal sports facilities and for over 300 approved sports organisations.
Adopting the slogan: “En aquest espai, RESPECTADORS i RESPECTADORES! Per una grada sense violència” [“Respectators” in this space! For violence-free stands], the initiatives were presented this Sunday, 5 March, at the Horta Municipal Football Pitch, during half-time at a match played between the Horta and Martinenc teams. The campaign will extend to 50 other football pitches over the coming weeks and, later on, to other sports spaces. Hosted by Mònica Planas, the journalist who won the last edition of the Women and Sport Award in the Mass Media category, the presentation ceremony was attended by the Councillor for Sports, David Escudé; the Chair of the Unió Atlètica d’Horta, Francisco Carmona; and the coach and physical trainer, Fabiana Alcalà.
The Councillor for Sports, David Escudé, explained during the presentation: “We intend to have more egalitarian and inclusive facilities, free of violence of any type (gender, racist, LGBTI-phobic etc.) This is the goal we are launching our campaign with, to promote respect in football pitches. This is just one of the first steps in our project which will extend later on to other sports spaces and aims to raise everyone’s awareness of the need to change type of behaviour which are sadly still very common in sport today”.
The chair of the Unió Atlètica d’Horta, Francisco Carmona, also added: “Here at the Unió Atlètica d’Horta we don’t understand how football or any other type of sport can be done without respect. We don’t want stereotypes or inequalities, let alone cases of discrimination on the grounds of origins, gender or sex. We want people seeing others enjoying and learning from the values that sport offers us. And that’s what we wanted to reflect in our decalogue against violence and which we trust Hort’s local residents who drop by this pitch will respect, help to promote and turn us into an example”.
Circuits for sports facilities
The measure was devised so that not just the general public but also athletes and professionals from the sports sector could obtain information and find out the procedures that need to be carried out should they witness or experience any form of LGTBI-phobic or racist violence in a sports facility. Although such situations can arise in many different ways and to various extents, the City Council’s goal is to achieve zero tolerance towards any type of “joke”, insult or assault. That’s because the aim is to raise awareness of and highlight any suspected case of discrimination or violence, especially on the grounds of origins, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, identity or gender expression.
Should anyone witness or be affected by any type of discrimination, they will need to ask a professional at the sports facility, as soon as possible, to contact the person in charge of or delegated for this circuit so they can tell them about their situation. The facility will be required to launch an internal investigation and draft a report based on which the facility’s management, the Barcelona Institute of Sports and/or the district affected will decide how to proceed. Depending on the case, a report may also be forwarded to the Office for Non-Discrimination, which is collaborating in this project and can offer four types of services: counselling, socio-educational action, legal advice and mediation.
A training plan for associations and facilities on inter-cultural perspectives in the area of sport or gender and sexual diversity in sport has also been organised in parallel, as a backup. The 132 municipal sports facilities and over 300 approved sports organisations can have access to the educational sessions.
This project falls within the legal framework set out under Act 19/2007, of 11 July, against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport, stating that public institutions must adopt measures that promote prevention, control and, where necessary, disciplinary action in response to violent behaviour in the area of sport.
Other measures
Besides the initiatives mentioned above, a further two tools will be published within the framework for sports facilities. First, the ‘Protocol for preventing, detecting and acting against sexual violence towards adults in municipal sports facilities’ whose aim is to establish guidelines for preventing, detecting and acting against possibles situations of sexual violence in the area of sports that occur within the framework of the pursuit of sport in municipal sports spaces. Second, the ‘Sports facilities with the gender perspective‘ leaflet containing advice with recommendations for achieving more egalitarian facilities.
All these initiatives are enshrined in the “Sport and Gender” Government Measure presented by the Barcelona Institute of Sports this June, in collaboration with the Department for Gender Services and Time Policies. More specifically, one of the lines of action under this measure is aimed at “Sports facilities with a gender perspective” and provides for 11 initiatives, some of which have already been implemented.