The starting XI of the Lionesses which won the European Championships last year was all white. There were folks of mixed race or of colour in the Squad but not the starting line up. And this is just unacceptable say those in the liberal media establishment.
Just as a reminder , around 87% of adults in Britain today are white. As such in both the Engfland’s men’s soccer squad and the Lioness squad, white folks are actually under-represented. There is no suggestion that the manager of the Lionesses picked her starting XI on race grounds, she picked a team to win. And that they did. Rejoice!. Er…no.
Equally there is no suggestion that Gareth Southgate picked a team with people of colour massively over-represented on the basis of skin colour. He just picks what he thinks is the best team to win. Which it doesn’t.
On Radio 4’s Women’s Hour today Dame Rimla Akhtar, a big cheese in women’s sport, joined presenter Anita Rani in berating the lack of diversity shown in that Lionesses starting XI. Natch’ structures need to change, more money needs to be spent, blah, blah,blah in order to make women’s soccer more diverse.
Actually it is very diverse in terms of the racial spread of players in the WSL, as in players of colour being heavily over-represented just as they were (marginally) in the Lionesses squad
As for sexuality, according to Pink News, the 12 teams in the WSL have an amazing 63 lesbian players between them, including a good number of the Lionesses. For what it is worth , the gayest team in the WSL is Arsenal with nine lesbians on board. Remember that less than 2% of women identify as lesbian according to the last census so on a pro rata basis the WSL should feature just 6 lesbians.
In short, relative to the population as a whole, by far and away the most under-represented group in Women’s soccer are white heterosexuals. But hell what do facts matter as this is 2023? The Lionesses must be more “diverse”: chuck more money at a problem that does not exist, something MUST be done.