Abstract:

Racism in sports remains a persistent and complex problem, shaped by interactions between individual behavior, institutional practices, and broader societal dynamics. Despite decades of initiatives, racist incidents continue to recur, often framed as isolated acts. Apart from designing measures and policies to counter-act it, there is a need to prepare the future decision-makers to fully understand the phenomenon and design appropriate counter-measures that limit racism without exhibiting un-intentional consequences.

The purpose of the current paper is to present a System Dynamics model that conceptualizes racism in football as a dynamic system driven by feedback loops linking fan behavior, institutional responses, reputation, and economic outcomes. The model captures reinforcing mechanisms that contribute to the escalation of racist incidents, as well as balancing processes through which deterrence, education, transparency, and trust can mitigate them over time. Its value is not merely as a tool to understand how racism propagates, but also how it can be used as a pedagogical tool in higher education through interactive simulation sessions.

Initial results showed that in pre-session responses students tended to interpret racism primarily as either a deeply embedded societal phenomenon transmitted across generations or as the result of individual attitudes and behaviors. Responsibility for addressing racism was most often attributed to football teams, players, or law enforcement, with education and sanctions viewed as separate actions that could be applied independently.

After interacting with the simulation, the students reported at least a partial shift in perspective. Post-session responses suggested greater recognition of institutional responsibility and of the role that management decisions play in sustaining or mitigating racism. Students more frequently identified combinations of transparency measures, sanctions, and visible enforcement as particularly effective, rather than viewing any single policy in isolation.

The students also demonstrated an improved understanding of how education, deterrence, and trust interact dynamically. Rather than seeing these elements as independent tools, they described them as mutually reinforcing components of a broader strategy. Finally, the students also explicitly stated that the simulation showed them trade-offs between costs, reputation, and incident reduction.

Keywords:

Racism, Higher Education, System Dynamics.