by What do Alex Scott, Anita Asante, Rachel Yankey, Lianne Sanderson, Mary Phillip, Jess Carter, Lauren James and I have in common? You can quickly come to the answer that we are all women of color. That is correct, but more importantly the common thread is our individual and team achievements playing for the best teams in women’s football, namely Arsenal and Chelsea, with multiple domestic and international trophies and 428 (and counting) collective appearances in England among us.
Simply put, we have certainly been among the best in our class, and judging by the performances of James and Carter in recent years, diverse women of color in football will continue to be among the best. There is certainly no question about whether we were or are good enough.
We represent the successful backdrop and context in which we must view the well-documented issue of a clear lack of diversity in UK women’s football. If so many women of color were among the best in their class at Arsenal, Chelsea and England, why has there been such a departure from what represents “best” or “good enough”?
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If, like me, you saw the Arsenal women’s team photo in which no women of color appear and felt deeply uncomfortable, I would like to make a positive contribution to identifying the causes and suggest a change in the approach to recruiting female players. Is not a new problem. In recent years, there has been a lot of commentary about the lack of diversity in women’s football due to professionalization creating a geographical disconnection with areas where diverse talent has historically been discovered.
There has been a decline in the number of girls from diverse backgrounds in academies. However, this does not mean that diverse talent does not exist. What it means is that diverse talent is not always selected to form the best teams in academies and first teams. So why are diverse talents no longer chosen?
This is an emotive topic that often leads many to reduce players of diverse backgrounds to an evaluation of whether they are “good enough” to be drafted. After all, no one wants someone to be singled out because of their race. I would suggest that, given the successful diverse class of women mentioned above, it is insulting to assume that players from diverse backgrounds are not good enough to be chosen for the best women’s teams in this country. Every player, regardless of his race, should be chosen as good enough until proven otherwise.
I will focus on the word chosen one emphasize the conscious and unconscious decisions made when recruiting and selecting players. At the highest level of women’s football, only the best can be chosen to form squads of normally 25 players. This means that coaches, sports directors and selection teams have a difficult task.
So how do coaches, athletic directors and recruiters decide who is the best? These choices are often subjective, formed with conscious and unconscious biases, and are often made from a limited pool of talent or a narrow view of what is best.
Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall has been at the club since 2021 and signed two diverse players in his first transfer window: Nikita Parris and Mana Iwabuchi. It didn’t work out for several reasons and that’s why the club ended the all-white team photo for this season. Eidevall has admitted that it is a problem and that more needs to be done to rectify it. Arsenal said: “It is a priority for the club to continue to drive greater diversity and inclusion and create a sense of belonging for everyone connected to the club.”
Other clubs have done better and Chelsea women’s coach Emma Hayes has recently made the signings of Kadeisha Buchanan (Canada), Ashley Lawrence (Canada) and Mia Fishel (United States). All women of color. All players who should rightly be considered “good enough” and best in class for their position. Chelsea has access to a number of options around the world and selected diverse women.
If we all considered the best options to be people who look, sound, and think like us, we would never have diversity and you are limiting your ability to succeed. We have a responsibility to always consider that what is different for us may actually be best.
I speak from personal experience. Between 2021 and 2022, as Angel City’s first athletic director, I was assigned the enormous task of recruiting a team based in Los Angeles. I had to start from scratch with the privilege of forming a team of 25 players. This represented 25 conscious choices of what I considered best and good enough for each position on the team.
Recruiting in football is not always easy and you often cannot recruit the players you want. Often these decisions depend on players’ desire to move, salary demands, relationships with agents, players’ life decisions, etc., etc. However, if your starting point when considering three to five players per position is as broad as possible, the player you choose will be much more likely to have a different profile.
It was important to use the resources available to do a global search. I started working with my team to put together a list of the best players in the world and in the United States. I was fishing as big a pond as possible instead of a small pond I was familiar with.
Angel City didn’t get all the players I tried to recruit, but it did produce a diverse team of 25 players of all backgrounds, races, sexual orientations, and beliefs. Those players had proven to varying degrees that they were good enough to play for their country or on successful teams. He was recruiting them to give them the opportunity to continue giving their best at the highest level of professional football.
Angel City has players of Black, Mixed Race, Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern, American and European backgrounds competing in one of the best women’s leagues in the world. Fundamentally, the diversity of this team reflects the wonderfully diverse Los Angeles fan base that sees themselves represented on their team. We can all agree that when a fan base and community connects with their team in a way where fans feel seen and represented, magic is created. Angel City nearly made the playoffs in their first season and in their second season this year they took another step toward making the playoffs. Success and diversity coexist and go hand in hand.
I am proud that diversity, inclusion and success are part of my legacy at Aston Villa Women and Angel City FC and will continue to be key in advising the recruitment of sporting directors at future Mercury 13 owned clubs, an investment. group I have joined as an investor and advisor committed to a new reimagined future for women’s football.
Coaches and recruiters in women’s football have a responsibility to move away from lazy decisions in recruiting players that reflect a narrow view of what is best and instead adopt a broader recruiting approach that will inevitably lead to consideration of diverse players as the best options for the job. . Fans within the diverse and multicultural world of football in the United Kingdom deserve a team that represents diverse options. as the best options. Being diverse and better can no longer be mutually exclusive.
After all, we are all guided by the fact that some of the best in class at all levels of football are diverse. The future of women’s football should continue to reflect this.
