Arseblog - an in-depth look at Arsenal Women’s lack of ethnic diversity
This is a good long read on the issues around diversity in Women’s football in England, and puts the recent furor over the Arsenal squad photo in context. I am once again in awe of Alex Scott for how she’s managed to thrive in spite of the barriers she’s had to push past.
There’s truly a broader systemic problem with getting young POC players into the system and thrive…
But I do feel like our situation did have more to do with recruitment by our senior squad…bloody hell even Brighton are more diverse and global than our squad. I do feel like because Arsenal has a history as a more inclusive club that this situation gets highlighted more.
I’ll get downvoted, but Jonas…there ARE talent outside of Northern Europe.
I think it’s pretty clear that Jonas’s recruitment has made the squad less diverse and this is a large part of the problem. Better scouting and a less manager-driven recruitment process would be nice.
I’m always suspicious of managers who seem to recruit from leagues they’re familiar with or clubs they used to manage. Look at Ten Hag for Man Utd men’s team, same problem that Jonas has.
We definitely have non-white players in the academy…and we’ve shipped them out for more experience this season.
But the recruitment really is literally the issue that no one wants to point out. I love our current squad, I really do, but I mean…it doesn’t actually look great if we have a white Scandi coach going for white Scandi players. It’s just being honest.
@MHPengwingz @scrchngwsl I do wonder how much of the reliance on a manager’s familiarity with a player pool is due to the lack of widespread scouting in the women’s game.
Even with the academy, the article points out the negative effect shutting Regional Talent Centres had on participation.
That’s one of the systemic things that has to change or at least on the club level.
Hopefully this will change with the emerging popularity of women’s sports.
Edit: I don’t think the club actually addressed the fact that our senior squad isn’t diverse, kind of deflecting that it’s a wider issue overall. Now while that is absolutely true, but that’s absolutely putting their heads in the sand now isn’t it if you look at other more top teams huh?
@MHPengwingz to be fair, RTC’s were the FA’s responsibility. The club does need to come up with a replacement of their own to ensure they’re casting as wide a net as possible.
I do like that Hale End had their own thing where the employees do a bit of groundwork themselves. I’ve also read about how tech is playing a role in it where aspiring footballers can upload their stuff on to scouting networks. That should be made more accessible.
That would certainly help with the scouting of players, but the bigger issue is getting kids into organized games and coaching in the first place.
Very good read. Overall I don’t think after reading that that the club are intentionally being racist, which is good (and the bare minimum). But we need to be scouting more, looking for talents that can make it in the senior squad and provide things that we lack. And while a coincidence that there’s none in this year’s squad, it’s not one that there has been a decline overall in PoC across the board, and it’s a problem that needs to be solved. Very glad that the club are addressing this (or at least trying to).
