MADRID, 28 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Starting next season 2024-2025, LaLiga and the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration will sign a collaboration agreement with the aim of fighting racism in the sporting field and promoting inclusion, including the transfer of the use of ‘MOOD ‘, a tool for active listening to hate speech on social networks.
This was announced by the Minister of Inclusion, Elma Saiz, and the president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, in the presentation of the balance of the awareness campaign in the fight against racism ‘We are going to win this game’, at the headquarters of the employers in Madrid.
The entity gives the Ministry a tool that analyzes hate speech and that will now “make it possible to optimize the monitoring strategy already carried out by the Spanish Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE).”
This transfer will be part of an agreement agreed between the Ministry and LaLiga, in which in addition to sharing the tool to prevent episodes of violence, stop them and work concretely against racism and xenophobia, communication and awareness campaigns will be developed, as well as training through a module on racism in grassroots football, and other collaborations with the LaLiga Foundation.
“The ‘MOOD’ tool will help us create special strategies. We are expanding the field of action. We are convinced that this agreement will mark a turning point in the fight against violence and hatred,” said Tebas during the event held in Madrid.
Meanwhile, Minister Saiz pointed out that this collaboration will allow “broader cooperation” between the entities. ‘MOOD’ will allow us to measure, analyze and combat hate speech in a much more agile way. “We are going to materialize super-effective synergies to powerfully combat these discourses,” she added.
The minister and Tebas shared this announcement during the presentation of the results of the awareness-raising campaign ‘We are going to win this match’. This campaign lasted four weeks, with the aim of promoting inclusion and generating debate to eradicate discriminatory behaviour in the field of sport.
This is the first collaborative campaign between LaLiga and the Ministry. During the campaign, various information activities were carried out in the field of football, in line with the actions of the LaLiga VS platform. In addition, it is part of the European SCORE project ‘Sports Cities that oppose Racism in Europe’, which is led by the Ministry itself through OBERAXE.
The campaign appeared in more than 85 national and international media, reaching 200 million people. Thanks also to the publication of more than 100 posts on social networks that generated more than 300,000 impressions. In addition, there were more than half a million openings of the initiative’s newsletter. Spain was the country that had the most impact (86.22%), with Ireland (3.06) and Austria (2.04) closing the ‘top 3’.
At the event, a round table was also held with the Spanish-Angolan footballer Thaylor Lubanzadio, a victim of racism in 2017 when he received insults from a rival in the Federation Cup; former basketball player Cindy Lima; and former rugby player Patricia García.
The 2013 Eurobasket champion acknowledged that such actions “give hope in the fight against ‘giants’.” “We are a small army that wants to change the compass. Sometimes I feel like I’m fighting alone,” she lamented.
“There are no grey areas. You are either against racism or a racist. You are also racist if you say nothing, you are extremely racist. If you do nothing, it will be a lonely fight. Things change when the message is forceful and massive. A lukewarm position is a racist position,” he said.
For his part, Lubanzadio explained that the case suffered in 2017 helped him get more involved against racism and to “learn values” that he now transmits to children. “Educating the little ones is one of the solutions to change that mentality,” she said. “Being close is essential when these types of cases happen, having your circle of trust to turn to. I missed it,” she said.
Finally, Patricia García, Olympic diploma in Rio 2016 and head of the NGO PGR, highlighted the work of the “glue and speaker” entity in the fight against racism and in favor of inclusion. “I chose rugby because it takes these values to the maximum. We must create bridges between all of us, those of us who are committed to this fight. “We must be participants and activists in this change,” she concluded.