This is not the place to talk about anything regarding race in any societal issue, especially not in football lol. There’s no nuance. Whether this is actually an issue or not the level of discourse cannot fucking be “the number of black players on the men’s team surely is enough to balance it out!!”. Come on lmao…
All I will say is, even if unintentional, having a narrow scope in recruitment is not really helpful for a top level football club like Arsenal. People screaming about “merit” over “diversity” sure that’s logical if they are looking thoroughly enough and taking a wide as possible view in recruitment. If you narrow your view, you are naturally losing opportunities.
It’s like when people complain that no black actors won an Oscar, maybe the white actors were better and the decision was based on performance rather than skin colour? Also fuck the Daily Mail with their clickbait bullshit.
It’s a football team, not a Netflix documentary. If players are good enough then they should be selected regardless of colour.
If they’re not in the team photo, then it’s simply because they didn’t make the grade, not because of their skin colour.
Shouldn’t being signed be based on merit rather than race etc???
I don’t care what anyone says, the developing obsession with skin colour over the last 5 years or so is beyond worrying and a complete reversal from the idea that skin colour doesn’t and shouldn’t define a person. Seems like we peaked 20 years ago and are now sliding back down in regression.
Weird how no one seems to worry about the England youth male teams having far more black players than you would expect for a country with the ethnicity of England…
I feel that FA hates Arsenal more than any other team when Arsene built a diverse team they called Arsenal foreigners team and FA together with the refs supported United now im 100% sure if it was another team none wouldve talked about it.
Storm in a teacup, bloody strange. And that’s coming from someone who hates you for taking one of our best players (united fan)
Something something ‘content of character’ I seem to remember MLK once saying…
Lmao
Guess years and years of constant SAY NO TO RACISM corporate messaging did nothing? I’m shocked! Shocked I say!
Common women’s sports L
Also hilarious as others have pointed out how culturally diverse the team is anyway. Hopefully people in the US and UK will wake up one day and realize that diversity for diversitys sake is not an ideal to strive toward. OP and whatever journalist/talking head pointed this out are fucking trolls
This honestly just feels like another unnecessary jab at Arsenal. Like when they fine us for “surrounding refs.” There is an obsession from the media to make our squad look like cunts.
Yes!
I’m sure all the black players in the men’s team is good enough to balance the lack of black players in the women’s team.
At the end of the day, you sign players that will improve the team without looking at color or race. It just so happens they’re all white
the team isn’t good though that’s the problem
It’s from the Daily Mail, that should be enough for you to ignore and move on.
The women’s team put out a statement a few days ago addressing this and saying they are going to be investing in the youth teams and ensuring players from a wider range of backgrounds are included.
At the end of the day the women’s game is noticeably very white. Compare the team pic with the men’s team, or the fans at the game. Or even walk around Islington for 10 minutes and you’ll notice.
Now obviously the Daily Heil is going to interpret this as “Arsenal are kicking out white players for the sake of inclusion”. This isn’t really the case, but anything to reinforce their readers that straight white people are the real victims.
Feel like it’s a whole storm in a teacup tbh… We didn’t intentionally do this like… Plus our club has a rich history of diversity. Controversy for controversy sake
Sadly. This is what 90% of journalism has become. Click bait headlines with non-stories beneath.
If I remember correctly Arsenal were the first team in England to field a majority who were black. Now the narrative has gone full circle.
There’s nothing controversial about this. I’m a black Brit who grew up in the 90s. So many people like me started supporting Arsenal because they had elite players who looked like us. I didn’t see myself when I watched United. Representation does matter
43% of premier League players are black according to a statista article on the topic. I wouldn’t be surprised to see similar numbers in the women’s game in 20 years time. The club should be doing everything they can to harness that potential, just like they do for the men’s game.
For me it’s not even a black / white thing. It’s a class divide. Women’s football has additional barriers (financial, geographical) to entry that the men’s game sorted out decades ago. The talent is and always has been in working class communities and I hope Arsenal tap into that sooner rather than later.
Media clutching at straws again. Anything to say negative about Arsenal.