THE CHALLENGE
Radicalization is a social and psychological process of increasing commitment to extremist political or religious ideology, and adolescence is typically a period of maturation in which young people experiment with their identity, group relationships, political ideologies and their place in the world.
Evidence provided by the CORPLAY stories indicates that the effects of racism and exclusion can be found at grassroots level sports organizations, both at professional and at amateur level, and that there is a lack of awareness on the impact that intolerance can have in young people.
Considering the relevance of sport in western society, and the amount of people freely involved in sports activities, it is reasonable to assume that grassroot level organizations have a relevant social responsibility within society.
In the particular case of sport we can observe the same phenomena that characterizes the broader society, such as political, religious, gender, homophobic or other forms of social and cultural violent radicalization.
In order to make sport organizations privileged places to promote de- radicalization, social cohesion and inclusion, it is important to provide managers and coaches, and possibly also parents and young people involved in their sports activities, up-to-date tools to detect and counteract cases of violent radicalization.
WARNING SIGNS TO DETECT RADICALIZATION:
Sport organizations informally accept their members based on their political, religious or sexual orientation.
Friendships and informal networks, in a team, are formed following rigid criteria based on nationality, ethnicity or religion, informally although systematically excluding minorities.
Among peers and parents sport antagonism is expressed using racial, gender or political-related insults adopting and normalizing sexist, racist, xenophobic or radical religious vocabulary.
