Identity and Racial Bias in Professional Football: Evidence from Refereeing Decisions

Identity and Racial Bias in Professional Football: Evidence from Refereeing Decisions | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Identity and Racial Bias in Professional Football: Evidence from Refereeing Decisions Desiré De Luca, Donato Ferrari, Pasquale Giacobbe, Andrea Mosca This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9414598/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper studies whether disciplinary sanctions in European professional football differ systematically by player race. Using player-match data from UEFA Champions League and Europa League competitions, we show that Black players are more likely than otherwise comparable non-Black players to receive both yellow and red cards. In our preferred specification, the gap is about 1.2 percentage points for yellow cards and 0.18 percentage points for red cards. We find no meaningful difference in net fouls committed, suggesting that observable on-field conduct alone is unlikely to account for the sanctioning gap. We then examine whether this differential varies across contexts. Identity-related proximity between referee and player does not reveal a systematic pattern of heterogeneity, while the yellow-card gap is larger among Black players with conflict-related background, consistent with a possible behavioral channel. Additional results show that VAR and home advantage do not systematically reduce the gap. Overall, the paper documents a persistent sanctioning gap by player race in a highly regulated sporting environment. JEL Codes: D91; D72; Z20; Z13. Referee Bias Racial Discrimination Geopolitical Conflict Political Identity Behavioral Economics Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9414598","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":623821705,"identity":"f48792aa-ba11-48e0-95f2-7524f50e1b7b","order_by":0,"name":"Desiré De Luca","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA/ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDCCA2DEwNjADuJVMDCwATkHGAyI0cIM4p0BawGKGODRcwBCQbQwtsEFcWvhO97+8HBFBYNsPzOP4Yef8w7n8bEffnCAoeAPTi2SZ84YHDxzhsF4ZjOPsWTvtsPFbDxpBngdZnAjh+FgYxtD4obDPGYMvNsOJ7ZJMBDQcv/5g4ON/xgS9wO1MP6dA9LC/oGALQwGBxsbgLYw85gx8zaAtPDgt0XyTI7BwYZjEsYzDrMVS8scS09s48kpOJBgYIxTC9/x448/NtTYyPa3N2/8+KbGOnF++/GNDz78kcOpBQok0PgJhDSMglEwCkbBKMALAPReWPdc7TfWAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Calabria","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Desiré","middleName":"","lastName":"De Luca","suffix":""},{"id":623821709,"identity":"b18b2206-c5e8-412a-abe9-2cd4a5aefcc6","order_by":1,"name":"Donato Ferrari","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Calabria","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Donato","middleName":"","lastName":"Ferrari","suffix":""},{"id":623821712,"identity":"ecc937b5-7f9e-4ca5-82a5-8cae5f6b5f15","order_by":2,"name":"Pasquale Giacobbe","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Calabria","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Pasquale","middleName":"","lastName":"Giacobbe","suffix":""},{"id":623821714,"identity":"16804d68-7c74-4447-ae34-e4152604f02b","order_by":3,"name":"Andrea Mosca","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Bergamo","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Andrea","middleName":"","lastName":"Mosca","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-04-14 11:08:52","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9414598/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9414598/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":108984276,"identity":"cbb97edb-7101-499e-9180-1a7a87d08b17","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-11 12:39:27","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":241095,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"IdentityandraciabiasinprofessionalfootballEvidencefromrefereeingdecisions1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9414598/v1_covered_baac34f5-24a9-435e-b718-a5dcea4d7a31.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Identity and Racial Bias in Professional Football: Evidence from Refereeing Decisions","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Referee Bias, Racial Discrimination, Geopolitical Conflict, Political Identity, Behavioral Economics","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9414598/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9414598/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper studies whether disciplinary sanctions in European professional football differ systematically by player race. Using player-match data from UEFA Champions League and Europa League competitions, we show that Black players are more likely than otherwise comparable non-Black players to receive both yellow and red cards. In our preferred specification, the gap is about 1.2 percentage points for yellow cards and 0.18 percentage points for red cards. We find no meaningful difference in net fouls committed, suggesting that observable on-field conduct alone is unlikely to account for the sanctioning gap. We then examine whether this differential varies across contexts. Identity-related proximity between referee and player does not reveal a systematic pattern of heterogeneity, while the yellow-card gap is larger among Black players with conflict-related background, consistent with a possible behavioral channel. Additional results show that VAR and home advantage do not systematically reduce the gap. 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