A WOMEN’S FOOTBALL expert backed pundit and reporter Eilidh Barbour after she received a backlash for observing that the Lionesses were all-white.
The England women’s team reached the European Championship final on Tuesday after beating Sweden 4-0, but Barbour’s comment about the lack of diversity while commentating on the BBC prompted over 200 complaints from the public.
The ‘England All-Whites’ as the Lionesses are becoming known, were also criticised by former player Anita Asante, who wrote that lack of diversity in England Women squad will stop many black girls from dreaming of pulling on the three lions shirt.
Women’s football expert Rodney Cyrus, who runs the podcast On And Off The Pitch, backed Barbour, saying: “I welcome Barbour’s comment. She could see what we could see and she said it. I wasn’t surprised at the reaction to her comments.
“Anyone who puts forward an alternative view and talks about sport and a lack of its inclusivity are hit with, ‘race has got nothing to do with it’…. but it does have a lot to do with it.
“Everyone talks about how diverse this country is but why are we not seeing it here? There are two black players in the squad but they are not getting selected and they are not playing.”
Given the long fight in Britain to rid the terraces of often violent racism, from fans affiliated with and sympathetic to violent groups, Britain simply does not have the luxury of dismissing questions about representation as political correctness or as ‘woke’.
Commentator and former professional player Eilidh Barbour remarked on the BBC the fact that the starting lineup and substitutes were white.
She said: “It was an historic eight goal victory for England last night as the Lionesses secured their place in the quarter finals. But all starting 11 players and the five substitutes that came on to the pitch were all white. And that does point towards a lack of diversity in the women’s game in England”.
One person hitting out at Barbour on Twitter writing: “With England scoring 4 goals every game, can’t be anything wrong with the team selection, can there? If the team was all black and someone commented that the team was all black, you would be calling that person racist, right?”
England take on Germany in the final this coming Sunday.
43% of players currently plying their trade in the men’s Premier League are black, while in its female equivalent, the Women’s Super League, this falls to less than 10% or 29 players out of a total 300.
In 2017, England player Eni Aluko quit after accusing Lionesses manager Mark Sampson of racism towards other black players, a claim he at first denied but later apologised for.
Comments Form
28 Comments
The reason the England team failed in the 2020 European Football Finals was due to “woke” Politically Correct and “diversity” loving manager; who selected three African-heritage players, who despite being paid weekly more than the Prime Ministers, still cannot lick a football in a straight line.
As they say in the United States, “Go Woke, Go Broke.”
If African-heritage girls are hurt because England’s female Football team winners are all Caucasian.
Then I suggest these “snowflake” like non-Caucasian young women lack the drive and the emotional intelligence to become outstanding football players.
Northern Lioness – rather than “white.”
Need to shoot down another wayward one:-
What the usually erudite Eiledh Barbour (BBC Sco) seems to have overlooked is that squad is predominantly sourced from the football-mad North of England. (Whey-Aye Hinny!) There is a different dynamic in football and the North has simply asserted its dominance over the women’s game the same way it did in the men’s.
16/23 players were born North of the same West Midlands which offered us two of their daughters.
Only five women are from the South at all, two of which are from London only because you count Wubben-Moy as English rather than Dutch.
So if you take into consideration the ethnic balance of their birthplaces (Whitby, Berwick, Barrow-in-Furness etc) plus Stokes and Parris, there is no lack of diversity at all. These Girls – whatever their appearance – have earned the right. End of.
GK Mary Earps Nottingham
GK Hanna Hampton Birmingham West Midlands
GK Ellie Roebuck Sheffield
DEF Lucy Bronze Berwick
DEF Rachel Daly Harrogate
DEF Alex Greenwood Liverpool
DEF Millie Bright Chesterfield
DEF Jess Carter Warwick
DEF Demi Stokes Dudley West Midlands
DEF Lotte Wubben Moy London (Dutch)
MF Keira Walsh Rochdale
MF Leah Williamson Milton Keynes (South)
MF Georgia Stanway Barrow in Furness
MF Fran Kirby Reading (South)
MF Jill Scott Sunderland
MF Ella Toone Tydelsly Greater Manchester
FW Beth Mead Whitby
FW Ellen White Aylesbury (South)
FW Lauren Hemp North Walsham, Norfolk
FW Nikita Parris Toxteth
FW Chloe Kelly London (London)
FW Bethnay England Barnsley
FW Alessia Russo Maidstone (South)
….and we managed to beat the Germans in ’66 with only 15 Northerners!
Given that there black female players in the womens game and also given historically there have been black female players playing for England, my hope is the current England Lionesses profile is coincidental & not deliberate, however it worries me that this could overshadow a redressing of the gender recognition that the womens game needs & richly deserves. However the observation made by the BBC presenter must & should not be diminished in any way.
All Zimbabwean football players are black, does that make them racist as well.
Apples and pears. Zimbabwe’s non-black population is tiny.
…so they don’t deserve representation? At what % of the population do they need to reach for a minority group to deserve representation?
According to google black population of UK 3%, not huge and well represented (and well deserved) in most sectors. There are many talented black and asian prominent people in the UK. It will change, is always changing, but give the team a break!
Black people are twice as likely to be unemployed, so clearly not over-represented in employment.
As anything the conversation is not straight forward. The FA clearly haven’t had an interest in getting Black women into the sport if in fact women from any background. Training grounds tend to be out of the city meaning that those from poorer socio-economic backgrounds find it harder to get there. Most of the women are from Northern towns where no doubt their fathers have pushed them into the sport (It would be interesting to see how many of the players have brothers or only sisters). The culture of football in black culture in the South is relatively new in comparison, due in part to terrace racism, and perhaps it’s just not of that much interest, especially with little to no representation. Of course it make absolute sense to attract as many different people into the sport as possible. With new faces come new ideas, levels of performances and revenue, all good things. This is a nuanced conversation, pointing out the fact that it’s not a diverse team is important as it mean we can discuss it and look at ways to address the problem in order to have a broader culture within the sport.
We should fight the idea that someone can’t inspire you because they don’t look like you. Lots of people inspire me, few look like me or had the same experiences. Their race is and should be, utterly irrelevant.
Imagine an Indian girl said to Alex Scott and said “I love Arsenal like you, I’m from the same area as you, I play in the same position as you, I’m a girl like you but you don’t inspire me because you’re not Indian”.
That’s an awful way of thinking for us to accept, especially from children.
Well said, I am not white, but this this team are and should and will be an inspiration to all the women and girls in the UK.
My only criticism is why does the English sporting teams use Lions on their badges? Lions are for Africans, why not use, for instance, Red Squirrels as badges? You won’t see Lions running around in the Peak District or Yorkshire Moors, or Hyde Park, would you. The English don’t even like Africans, why steal their Lions?
Yes, it is, but that’s how it works. The same reason you’ll listen to something your friend says over a stranger.
From your comment one can tell that you’re just ignoring the whole issue of racism and discrimination here. Having diverse representation in teams IS important for encouraging people from diverse backgrounds to play.
It’s not the fact that there were only three black female players but they hardly got a look in for the team in fact one black player was only subbed in the last minute what was the point
Manager must select the players who perform best in their individual positions. Race must be irrelevant. How much of our industry and public services have been damaged due to racial quotas?
After the racist nastiness after the men’s final last year. We should’ve expected an all white women’s team that doesn’t represent the country in 2022. The non stop celebrations wouldn’t have happened if 20% of the team were non white. Everything about this is a message that there is still too much bigotry in this country. Young Black girls play lots of sports esp footie but the England team didn’t represent that.
Oh look, only 10 minutes to go and still 1-0 down. We need some more ethnic diversity diversity here.
For goodness sake. If they’re god enough they will come through, like the men’s team have for decades. Maybe you should force them to participate and practice. This is no differethan saying red heads are discriminated against.
I can see why they lost, keeping it white is not alright,, The men’s football team would be nothing without the black players…
The majority of English people will always be Narcissistic and downright Racist.
Last evening the BBC News visited two girls football academies, one in Blackburn and the other in Preston. Both of these towns have very large ethnic minority populations, mostly Asian (Pakistani and Indian). These training schools are open to all but there wasn’t a single face from the Asian communities. This has nothing to do with race but with culture – something which is slowly, very slowly, changing. There is not a large Afro-Caribbean population in the North but nationwide it is about 3% (happy to be corrected) so any girls who choose to address some form of athletic sport is going to be in a tiny minority; most of those who do look towards athletics (running etc) and they do superbly well and good luck to them.
Personally as a black woman I would hate to be the only brown person in that be team, I’m sure they bully the odd ones out. It needs to be 50/50 otherwise forget it. We need all black lioness team to make up this all white lioness team.
If your black play for a African nation,how many white players play for any of these teams.The UK is a prodominatly white country,and you should play for the country where your from not your adopted country its a no brainer,we should take a leaf out of Argintina’s book .
Why can’t we just enjoy the win.the women played there hearts out and they won but all the interview s the team will give from now on will be about the lack of black players and not how well they played.the UK is approximately 85% white so is it so unusual that there were all white.
Why don’t the Women’s FA organise buddy systems or car share so those who can’t afford to get to the training centres can. Mini buses or coaches could also be used. This would help not only poorer black players but all players. No one should undermine the England women’s triumph all the reporter was doing was highlighting an issue already acknowledged by the authorities.
So the argument is that the team performance isn’t important? It’s about representation? Surely the point is to pick the best players to win a game of football? In that case, tell PSG to drop Messi (who is world class) for me (even though I am rubbish) because I am black and if they don’t they are racist.
I have experienced prejudice being black, but I hate this reverse racist rubbish. I have white friends who it is assumed lead a happy life but they have come from worse homes than I did.
We don’t need to try and educate people on racism by saying ‘If it isn’t all black you’re racist’, in that case bring back segregation and we’ll have a black league, black public transport, black restaurants etc.
You people are the reason racism is still an issue. If the black players on the team aren’t good enough then get better! The mens team had a diverse team last year, with some white players not being picked on favour of black players (Ollie Watkins ahead of Patrick Bamford, sorry but that is race, England need to show how diverse they are) and THEY LOST!
The women did every England fan proud, whether they are black, white or green. If the team wins, we all win.
Stop being such idiots. We can’t expect racism to disappear when we call everyone racist!
Rubbish, the biggest hurdle is the stigma of lesbianism, media overlook this problem.
Neville Thompson , your a nob