Addressing the Racism Towards Black Players by Sky Sports and the English Media
As racial tensions have surfaced on a global scale this year, it is about time that Sky Sports and the British Press address the underlying racism putting an ugly stain on the beautiful game.
If 2020 has taught us anything it is that if we continue to remain silent about the difficult and taboo issues within our society, the necessary changes will never take place.
With everything that has happened this season regarding racism that several black footballers have experienced, surely 2020 is the year for these ignorant and prejudiced attitudes to change?
“If I speak, I will be in trouble” are the famous words from the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ José Mourinho. I have kept quiet all season regarding racism but I finally had enough, something needed to be said because it was making my blood boil.
Two days ago, I begrudgingly listened to Gary Neville’s criticism of Paul Pogba after he gifted West Ham a penalty in the 45th minute. It was irrational and completely over the top.
Rice’s ferocious shot flew at the Frenchman, who blocked the shot with his arms in the box.
I can understand why he did this; he was trying to protect his face. But whilst this was understandable, it was also cowardly. Pogba should have done much better and he more than anyone was fully aware of this. Regret as well as disappointment were written all over his face as he stormed off the field at half-time.
Neville ruthlessly scorned Pogba and started questioning his attitude, something he, along with Graeme Souness, Roy Keane, and Jamie Carragher, have done all season; including the time when the Frenchman was injured. Make no mistake, his tirade was personal.
As the game went on, Pogba continued receiving criticism from Neville, who remained awfully quiet over the diabolical performance of Marcus Rashford and Brandon Williams.
What I have noticed is that when white players, especially those who are British, under perform or make errors, they receive little to no criticism from the mostly white English pundits and journalists.
On the contrary, when black players, especially those who are foreign, play just as badly or make similar errors, they receive an incredible amount of criticism; which is undeniably savage, unjust, and personal.
Several English pundits and journalists come out all at once like a ravenous, bloodthirsty pack of wolves seeking to destroy, devour, and dissect those players.
You only need to look at Manchester United’s recent performances. Whilst Bruno Fernandes has continuously been scoring and providing assists, his all-round game as of late has been abysmal. On too many occasions, he has given the ball away far too cheaply. People will argue that this is due to him trying to make a risky pass. However, a lot of them were simple five-yard passes that you would expect a League One player to successfully complete.
Despite this, Fernandes has faced no scrutiny whatsoever. In fact, he gets applauded for “trying hard” and will repeatedly receive the Man of the Match award.
In contrast, when Pogba misplaces a pass, the usual suspects i.e. Keane, Souness, Carragher, and Neville will slate him for “making Hollywood passes”, accuse him of being egotistical and self-centred; label him “a virus” and a “bad example”, and question his attitude. They will even go as far as to bring up a recent video of him dancing on social media.
Why are they so quick to bring up a video of him dancing? What on earth does Pogba dancing on social media have to do with him misplacing a pass? I simply cannot wrap my head around it. They are not mutually exclusive. To even think about introducing his dancing into the conversation is fatuous and it illustrates how those pundits have an agenda.
People will say “it is because of his price-tag, he should be doing better!” But what about Harry Maguire’s price tag? United spent £80 million on Maguire, just £5 million more than Virgin van Dijk, the best defender in the world. Have Man United got a return on their investment back? Absolutely not! Maguire has made numerous errors and has been caught out on several occasions.
Steven Bergwijn effortlessly skipped past him before rifling the ball past a hapless David de Gea to put Spurs a goal ahead against United last month. It was like watching a 100-metre sprinter outrun a pensioner.
Maguire was again left with egg on his face when Junior Stanislas nutmegged him with considerable ease before beating de Gea at his near post to give Bournemouth the lead over United at Old Trafford three weeks ago.
He was also caught out in Southampton’s last-minute equaliser last week, which subsequently prevented United from leapfrogging Leicester and Chelsea to third place at the time.
And just when you thought it could not get any worse, he was by far one of the worst players on the field in United’s humbling 3–1 defeat to Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final last Sunday.
Where was all the criticism against Maguire? Where were all the English pundits and journalists? They were nowhere to be seen and the noise from them was deafening. You could almost hear a pin drop from them.
Now, can you imagine what would have happened to Pogba if he made just one of those errors? The pundits and journalists would have wasted no time in throwing him into the lion’s den.
Furthermore, Jesse Lingard went a whole year without registering a single goal and assist and was rightfully criticised. But why hasn’t Daniel James received the same criticism? His last goal in the league was against Southampton at St. Mary’s Stadium. That was 328 days ago, almost an entire calendar year! Yet, he has been immune from any criticism.
There is all the off-field antics and the difference in terms of the way in which the media will report one group in comparison to the other.
The likes of Pogba along with players, past and present, such as Raheem Sterling, Anthony Martial, Ian Wright, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Emmanuel Adebayor, Mario Balotelli, Yaya Touré, and several other players faced and continue to face severe scrutiny from the English press for expressing themselves differently.
What I have noticed though, is that people such as Sadio Mané and Marcus Rashford get praised by many pundits because they keep their heads down and silently go about their business.
But the fact is, everyone is different. You cannot expect everyone to behave the same. There is nothing wrong with Mané and Rashford being quiet away from football.
Simultaneously, there is also nothing wrong with people like Aubameyang, Pogba et. al dancing in the dressing rooms, attending parties, or driving in fancy cars.
People are different and those differences create great cultures within the dressing room.
Is it appropriate to have the time of your life whilst you and your team are under performing? No, I don’t think that it is. However, it also is not appropriate for them to be depressed and downtrodden from day till night either.
Remember, players are not robots and they also have lives outside of the game. In fact, dancing or attending a party after a bad performance could be their way of cheering themselves up and sometimes, that mental break is much needed.
Having a good time and expressing yourself are not crimes, nor have they ever been.
They certainly are not as bad as assaulting a DJ at a bar for not playing your favourite music, which Steven Gerrard did in July 2009.
They are not as bad as sleeping with your brother’s wife, something that Ryan Giggs did for many years.
They are not as bad as spitting in the face of a taxi driver all because he wore the shirt of a team that you hate, which Jack Wilshere did in March 2011.
They are not as bad as spitting at a 14-year old girl after she made fun of you because your team lost to their fiercest rivals, which Jamie Carragher did in March 2018.
Nor are they anywhere near as bad as mocking the victims of 9/11, sleeping with your best friend’s wife, and racially abusing another footballer like John Terry.
But, for one reason or another, black players receive a much greater backlash from the English media.
Some people will be quick to say, “but Terry, Carragher, Giggs and Gerrard all helped their teams win trophies”. So did Wright, Ferdinand, and Cole but the English media still showed them no mercy even when they did far less. Winning silverware also does not give you a licence to be a jackass. There is a reason why they are called ‘professional’ footballers.
And can you imagine the backlash that someone like Sterling would face if he mocked the victims of a terrorist attack or had an affair? The media would have a field day!
The naysayers will argue that people like Souness and Neville cannot be racist because they played with black people and have black friends. But all this does is show a complete lack of knowledge and awareness with regards to racism. There is a lot more to racism than saying the N-word or other heinous racial slurs and throwing bananas at black people.
Racism is far more covert than that. This was highlighted by Danish Firm Run Repeat, Run Repeat, in a recent ground-breaking study that they undertook.
This study shows how there is a difference in the way light skinned players are spoken of by European commentators in comparison to dark skinned players.
More than 2,000 statements from commentary on 80 games were analysed across the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, and Ligue Un.
In this study, Run Repeat concluded that lighter-skinned players received much greater praise for their intelligence, work ethic, and quality. On the other hand, darker-skinned players were only spoken of regarding their physical attributes as well as their athleticism.
There were 1,361 comments about lighter-skinned players and 713 about darker-skinned players. Lighter-skinned players were praised for their intelligence 62.6% of the time. In addition, 60.4% of the time, lighter-skinned players were praised for their hard work. They were also praised 62.79% of the time for their quality.
In contrast, commentators will speak about the power of a darker-skinned player 6.59 times more than that of a light skinned player. They will also talk about the speed of darker-skinned players 3.38 times more than they would of lighter-skinned players.
The study also found that 63.33% of the criticism of a player’s intelligence is aimed at darker-skinned players. Also, 67.57% of the criticism of a player’s quality is aimed at darker-skinned players. If this study is not proof within itself, then I do not know what is.
I am not saying that people like Souness are racist, but it is crystal clear that they have racial tendencies and an agenda. This has been illustrated on several occasions. Me highlighting this does not make me a race-baiter like some will say. Instead, I am simply calling a spade a spade.
Sky Sports and the English press though, have made progress over the years. They are allowing people like Emile Heskey, Patrice Evra, Mario Melchiot, Sol Campbell, Kevin Campbell, and several other black players to openly voice their experiences of racism from yesteryear. This progress should be commended. But there is still lots of work to be done.
If Sky Sports and the English press really want to tackle racism head on, then they need to start from within. One way that they can do this is by addressing the racial bias shown by many of their journalists, pundits, and commentators.
Until then, they are not solving the problem, instead they are part of the problem.
Edits made by Lisa Berrie
