A forum member’s opinion of Rio Ferdinand’s ‘stance’ recently.
Whilst I understand Ferdinand’s (and the other black players who ‘protested’) concerns, I think he is way off the mark in how he is going about this.
To even link the Kick it Out Campaign here, with what has gone on in Serbia is utterly ridiculous. This is a long standing cultural issue within countries such as Spain, Serbia and other middle eastern nations, and totally undermines the work that has been done in THIS country. If he has an issue with that (which he rightly has), why not aim it at THOSE countries FA’s and/or UEFA/FIFA? You can`t just label the entire Kick it Out campaign a flop, when it hasn`t worked in only certain areas.
To set up an association for black players, is about as racist as it can get though.
‘You’re not coming in, unless your skin is black’
Why don’t we just go straight to apartheid like in South Africa? That was ace wasn’t it? Identifying and separating people purely on the colour of their skin. Wasn’t it Martin Luther King who wished that people would be judged on the content of their character? Well in there Rio lad.
Whilst we’re on the subject of racism in football, the lack of black managers in football etc. I’d like to know why there is NO visible representation for other minorities in football playing terms. I’m talking about Asian oriental, Asian Indian and of course, whites.
Why is it we never hear a peep about the total and utter lack of Asians in football?
Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and other Asians represent 5.8% (6.4% including White Asians) of the population in England and Wales, with 0.8% representing Chinese.
One in 15 should be of Indian sub-continent descent. How many players fitting into that ethnic group can you name in the Premier League?
Afro-Caribbean represents 2.8% of the population (3.6% including mixed white).
It should be that approximately one player in 27 is black. That’s less than one per squad of 24.
White British and other white represents 87.9% of the population. 21 out of a squad of 24 should be white, in order to ‘represent’ that ethnicity.
There is one black manager and 19 white managers, which is fairly representative of those two ethnic groups. However, there are no Indian subcontinent or Oriental managers.
I don’t have any information on the number of players in Premier league, but using the premis of ‘representation’, if each team has a squad of 24 players, there ‘should’ be;
422 White
31 Indian sub-continent
17 Afro-Caribbean
4 Chinese
6 Other
I believe the premis of ‘representation’ within football, is to try and get a similar percentage of those playing, as there are within the population of the country in general, so that it shows a reasonable and rightful representation of that ethnic group?
If that’s the case, this applies to all ethnic groups surely?
It seems that whites are underrepresented, and Indian sub-continent disgracefully have zero representation. ZERO. Imagine that? Why isn’t there a massive furore about this? Apologies if I’ve got this wrong, but I can’t think of a single player, except Chopra (who is obviously no longer in Premier League).
I can’t recall any push to have a more representative figure of white players in the game, when it’s fairly clear, as a group, they are woefully under represented. Some teams even have 5, 6, 7 or more black players in them. That doesn’t seem ‘fair’?
Something’s not right here.