Anita Asante, Les Ferdinand, and more share how to turn BLM solidarity into action
Baroness Young of Hornsey, co-chair of a UK parliament committee on sport, modern slavery and human rights, put it perfectly when she told The Telegraph earlier this month, ‘It’s interesting that football clubs have expressed support for Black Lives Matter, and against racism – but how many of them have made effective, consistent efforts to redress the imbalance? With what success?’
Over the past few weeks, nearly every individual, organisation and institution across English football has posted a statement on social media in support of #BlackLivesMatter, a global movement that has regained momentum following the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many other African Americans, who have died at the hands of the police in the US.
Statements from the football world ranged from spelling out letters in a photo opp on the pitch (Chelsea, Birmingham City, and others), generic graphics or images about anti-racism that didn’t explicitly acknowledge BLM (Manchester United), to more reflective posts which directly referenced the movement. Some organisations pledged to change and were transparent about their failings (the PFA), others didn’t, some donated funds (Nike), others didn’t (Adidas). US Soccer posted an image with the words ‘United Against Racism’, even though the federation banned players from kneeling during the national anthem in 2017.
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Leeds United laughably posted a black square of #BlackoutTuesday despite the guilty verdict and eight match ban that the FA handed to goalkeeper Kiko Casilla for racially abusing Charlton forward Jonathan Leko last year. Casilla still denies making any racist comment and neither the club or the player has ever publicly apologised to Leko.
Incredibly, it seemed like the first time that the football world had united around an anti-racist message that wasn’t led by Kick It Out, the anti-discrimintation charity that is funded by the FA, Premier League, and PFA. When the Premier League returned on 17 June, players wore a ‘Black Lives Matter’ badge on the front of their shirts and had the three words emblazoned in the space where the players’ name would usually be. The gesture, while overtly tokenistic, is something that the game has never done before.
So why has football’s reaction and inaction to the Black Lives Matters movement enraged me so much?
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The social media posts and the shirts are a starting point not a solution. There is lots of real work that football needs to do to change the fact that beyond the pitch, where in English men’s football 25 per cent of players are black, black men and women do not thrive. The fact is, there are no black people on the FA’s board or the board for the Women’s Super League. There are also just six black or non-white head coaches in the top 92 coaches in the English football league.
As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to shine a spotlight on the inequalities and injustices within every industry, now is the opportunity for long overdue change in football. It is time for people in the football community to demand change because, at this moment, it feels different and things are changing around us. Statues are literally toppling and after decades of inadequate efforts to tackle systematic racism in the game, now is the time.
What could the change in football be? In order to platform black voices at a crucial time for listening, learning, and finding out ways that we can all be allies, SEASON asked black men and women across the game to share their thoughts. I also spoke to Les Ferdinand and Chris Ramsey about this on the QPR Podcast and included their responses.
The players
Anita Asante, ex-Chelsea Women and England
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‘One of the main ways we can have an influence, and maybe have an impact, is if we’re given the platform to have conversations with the powers that be. We never get to have those direct conversations with those that run the game and we need to have conversations that take them out of their comfort zone. They will be confronted with what we face as players and we can make those points. We can say we don’t like the training ground or our staff isn’t diverse. Then they have to confront it because it’s coming from a player.
‘From a player’s perspective, it’s really difficult because it’s still hierarchy-based. The managers and coaches have the power. We want to influence that if there’s an openness to players’ opinions. We’ve seen players like Jadon Sancho use their platform to spread messages in a symbolic way because how often do WE get to sit with stakeholders, media and sponsors? There’s power in collective player activities but it's difficult. Everyone has to buy into it.
‘For example, if I think there needs to be more black coaches or female coaches at my club, it’s difficult because they’re my bosses. We as players need to be more conscious about these issues. When we refer to our captain about on-pitch things, we need these things on the agenda, then they can take that to the coaches.’
Jess King, Lewes FC
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‘The biggest thing for me is people think about obvious derogatory language but there’s a lot of underlying attitudes that people have towards black people. Things like “You’re on tag from the police”. I’ve never been in trouble, but you get labelled. We need to make people aware of these things. It might not seem like a big deal, but people have these connotations about black people being lazy and I’ve experienced previous coaches thinking that. I had a teammate who is well known in the English game who was left crying after she was labelled that.
‘A lot of what happens is unconscious. It’s always an uphill battle, every time someone says something it’s like they’re throwing it at you. I’ve chosen to say I don’t care what people think but maybe if a black player doesn't have a strong and positive mentality like me then it is hard. We need to bring more awareness to it, but it made me angry wearing “Show Racism The Red Card” t-shirts. It’s just a formality, it means nothing.
‘We need more opportunities to qualify as coaches. I want a mentor like Hope Powell – she’s the only black coach I know in women’s football. We need cheaper coach courses and education because I can’t afford it. They [the FA] say they want more for BAME coaches but they need to do more. They could offer something for free or 50 per cent off for BAME players or put on the course in certain areas or at a specific time that works with a player’s schedule. That would make a huge difference. They need to provide access.’
The media
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‘The diversity isn’t there in women’s sport. From England women’s football to rugby, hockey, and cricket. But as broadcasters, publishers and journalists, we need to be. People set up schemes to put people at the bottom who are sometimes over-qualified and sometimes experience bullying, micro-aggressions and discrimination. They’re fighting, wanting to progress but also wanting to speak up. It’s traumatic.
‘Your leadership should also reflect the society you serve so organisations – broadcasters, publishers, media owners really need to commit to change. Look at your structures, policies and procedures, update, change, plan and include people that can help you grow. Get the right and intelligent people that can really create the changes. Let’s hold people to task when things are not done right when it comes to racism in our industry. Hire diverse, daring, smart and real people to grow with you. Be bold in your change.’
Leon Mann, Consultant and co-founder of the Black Collective of Media in Sport
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‘Looking at the football industry, what appears to be missing to me is four very key things. First of all, a coherent plan about how we’re going to address the lack of black and Asian men and women. Secondly, who is going to be held accountable? In my career I’ve never known someone to get sacked for not delivering on a plan of diversity.
‘Thirdly, what’s the timeline? That’s the thing that everyone finds frustrating. There’s lots of 10 point plans but there’s no timeline attached to it. The final thing is what’s the number? What’s the budget? Often we can see how important something is for a company based on how much money they’re putting behind it. The absence of this means that it's not a business priority. If it was, you would get people to have a look at all the above.
‘Diversity is seen as a charitable act. “We’re going to do this because we feel bad for black and brown people”. That attitude stinks. Until that mentality and approach changes then we will see people with good intentions try to do things with zero budget and zero support. They will be allowed to continue to try but there will likely be failure.’
Calum Jacobs, Founder of Caricom
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‘I don’t know that demanding things from people who have a vested interest in ensuring the status quo will ever really work. You’ll see incremental gain, but overhaul? I’m not so sure. There’s this James Baldwin quote where he says: “Yes we have lived through avalanches of tokens and concessions but white power remains white. And what it appears to surrender with one hand it obsessively clutches in the other”.’
Anonymous
‘The footballing world needs more Carrie Browns. When I went to Arsenal for my first shift, I was shadowing and I needed to chat to some journalists at half-time to get their opinions. Being a woman in sport and also being mixed race, there weren’t many people who looked like me in the room. I went up to get a coffee and she came over and said “hi” and it just made me feel welcome.
‘Football is like the legal profession, everyone is pally. It’s really hard to feel like you belong until you make contacts. If you see people from other backgrounds in the press room, strike up a conversation. We need more people to do that because it’s really cliquey. Remember people aren’t here to steal your jobs, we all have a passion for the game. At the end of the day, publications need to ask themselves “How are they going to reflect the stories of BAME players on the pitch without having BAME people in the media team?”.’
The coach
Chris Ramsey, Technical Director at QPR (quotes from the QPR Podcast)
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‘What I’m hoping is that this isn’t just a furore that is forgotten about in a couple of weeks. That’s usually what happens, everyone shows their disgust and their concern for a short period of time. One of the problems we have is that it’s the silent decent people that are the problem. It’s people who don’t see that other people's integrity isn’t the same as theirs. The people that can’t see discrimination. They find it difficult to understand so they keep their mouth shut because they don’t think it’s going on. It’s the people that are covert that say the right things but don’t do the right things. There’s also people that are good people but don’t see it, don’t understand how people can act in that fashion.
‘Everybody’s always saying we’ve got these steps to change. But we’ve got to have radical change otherwise it won’t. If the elephants had to wait to evolve, they’d still be wearing fur coats.’
The boardroom
Les Ferdinand, Director of Football at QPR (quotes from the QPR Podcast)
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‘It’s frustrating to be in the position I’m in because people come to talk to me all the time and I’m banging the same drum time and time again.
‘For me, personally, if you want to change anything you’ve got to go to the highest level. You look at the FA or the Premier League and there’s no one of colour in any position of authority who can give them any understanding of the situation. As long as you block those areas of progressions, it’s going to be like that.
‘There’s lots of people paying lip service to something they don’t really want to correct, because if they did, they could.’
The fans
Hayley Bennett, Co-founder of Nutmegs, a football community of women and non-binary people of colour.
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‘Make current work intersectional by including black people’s experiences across the board. When we talk about racism in the game, this usually means black men’s experiences of racism so there’s voices missing from the conversation. There’s also a painful lack of black representation with in the growing LGBTQ+ movement within football which is having a negative impact on black queer people.
‘Women’s football is still very white and has been allowed to be so because football does not take an intersectional approach to gender equality. When we talk to people within the Nutmegs community about what football needs to do to include them, intersectionality always comes up – people are excluded due to the combination of racism, sexism and homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. There is pretty much zero research into intersectionality and the football experience so funding this kind of research would be a good start. Organisations in football should also be expected to collect and publish data that is intersectional.
‘Pay black experts providing expertise on diversity and inclusion in the football space. There are some fantastic black leaders working in football who are often called upon as a resource but are sometimes expected to work for free or around their day jobs. A good example of this would be to commission a review of current regulations such as the Premier League equality standard and EFL code of practice to see what actual impact this is having on black people’s experiences in football.’
……...
All the men and women I spoke to want change, but they’re tired of being the ones in the room asking for it. History has told us that when individuals speak up they aren’t listened to. Eni Aluko told the FA about racism she faced while playing for England and she never played international football again. White people in football need to speak up and demand change because football can change if the people that run it want to. At the moment, the game is happy to stick to the status quo and those that it serves. The Black Lives Matter movement has sparked something in football, how it will evolve is unknown.
Words: Flo Lloyd-Hughes
Photography: Instagram embeds
Thumbnail image: Footie Blacklist