Playing football and watching it here in the UK introduces you to some of the subtle racial bias that is prevalent in the game today. The way racism is expressed in the UK is so covert that people try to say that the UK is better than other countries, such as the US, and this could not be further from the truth.
This topic recently came to light due to a study that was done on the racial bias in football commentary performed by the organisation RunRepeat, in which they analysed the commentary in 80 football matches over the 2019/20 season. The findings were that whenever a player was being praised for their intelligence, 62.60% of the time this was aimed at players with lighter skin tone, whereas when their intelligence was being criticised, 63.33% this was aimed at players with darker skin tones. Furthermore, whenever a player was being praised for their physical power it was 6.59 times more likely that they were talking about a player with a darker skin tone. Whenever speed was being discussed, it was 3.38 times more likely to be about a player with darker skin tone, and when the work ethic of a player was being praised, 60.4% of the time this was aimed at a player with a lighter skin tone.
A player that I would like to talk about, who I think epitomises these observations, is one of my personal favourite players to play in the Premier League (albeit if it were for Man City) Yaya Toure. He is best remembered for his performance in the 2013/14 season which saw him net 24 goals (20 in the premier league) and 12 assists (9 in the premier league). His 24 goals in all competitions match the amount Steven Gerrard scored in his most prolific season (2008/09) which saw him labelled the best in the world by Zidane. However, the first term people use when describing Yaya Toure as a player is “powerhouse”. I have had multiple discussions with people before about what they thought Toure’s main attributes are and the first word is always powerhouse or powerful etc… It is undeniable that his physical strength and power are prominent parts of his play, but the technical aspects of his play are clearly overlooked.
Whilst the term “technical” can be vague it is generally described as a player who demonstrates good control of the football in all aspects of the game. This involves non-physical areas of the game such as passing, dribbling, general ball control, dead ball play, volleying and crossing.
Over the course of a whole season, having a 90% passing accuracy is incredible and shows that clearly using the label “powerhouse” downplays the advanced technical ability that Yaya Toure clearly possesses. To put this into perspective, in the 2019/20 season Kevin de Bruyne had a pass accuracy of 82%, this was a season that saw him win the player of the year award, and in general, he is regarded as one of the most technically gifted footballers in the world. Another technical aspect of football is dead ball play. Yaya Toure scored 10 goals from set-pieces in just 13 attempts, 4 of them being free kicks. Only one other player has scored 4 freekicks in a season in the last 15 years, that being a certain Cristiano Ronaldo. There are more stats that show that technically he was one the most gifted midfielders to touch the Premier League and yet many people forget to celebrate the many other sides to his game.
A big thanks to Ian Addae for writing a greatly informative piece about racism in football. It has opened my mind up to how racism isn't limited to just the media I consume but is prevalent in such a big area, sports. It's disappointing to see how little the media and society's colourist beliefs are still being reinforced and attached to levels of intelligence. I agree with Ian, by detaching the negative language used to describe talented players, it gives them credit where credit is due.
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