Sarina Wiegman: England women’s head coach hopes the team will be more racially diverse in the future | Football news
Sarina Wiegman hopes England will be more racially diverse in the long term.
Former Lionesses defender Anita Asante believes the path into the elite women’s game must be reformed to achieve more diversity, with only 3 of the 23 members of Wiegman’s Euro 2022 squad sourced Black, Asian, or mixed descent.
England’s opener against Austria marked a pivotal moment for the women’s game with a mostly young woman crowd, nearly 69,000 gathered at Old Trafford, home of Manchester United, highlighting the strides the female game has made in the UK in recent years.
Sarina Wiegman hopes for more diversity
But there was also something else remarkable for so many in England, and beyond – especially as it was shared on social media: England had an all-white starting line-up for the match. with Austria.
Write in Guardians“Young girls can’t see anyone looking like they’re missing heroines to emulate – and that’s important,” Asante said.
She calls for a more imaginative approach to scouting in urban and inner-city areas, while also providing additional resources for the girls’ in-game scouting network.
Anita Asante wants more resources assigned to the female in-game scout network
She also highlighted the issue around the often suburban location of the club’s training grounds, which she said could make it more difficult for white and working-class white children to access.
Asante, who on Tuesday was appointed first-team coach at Bristol City, took great pains to point out her comments were not intended to criticize Wiegman or her team, who face Spain into the quarterfinals of Euro 2022 in Brighton on Wednesday night.
The former Netherlands coach, speaking before that match, said she hoped to have a more diverse talent pool in the future.
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FA CEO Mark Bullingham said the FA is committed to building a pathway for girls to football and increasing diversity in the girls’ game.
“I think football needs inclusion and diversity,” said Wiegman.
“So everyone who wants to be involved in football, in any position, playing the game or doing something else, should be welcomed. I know the FA have laid out strategies to empower them. that, to get more variety in the game, so that’s something more permanent.
“So I hope in the long run we will have more diversity, as well as in the national team.
“I think now, for me, I don’t care if someone is Black or white, everybody knows that – I just pick the players that I think are the best to perform at the best level. That’s short term, but hopefully in the future there’s more variety.”
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FA director of women’s football Baroness Sue Campbell thinks meaningful change to diverse communities at the end of the women’s game could take years, acknowledging the current system of financial IDs talent and recruitment excludes a lot of people.
In May, the English Football League announced plans, backed by the Premier League, designed to create a broader and more diverse talent pool for the women’s game, with good accessibility. out of the five identified areas for improvement.
There is a need for a broader national network of what will be called the Emerging Talent Hub for Girls aged 8 to 16, and the FA’s director of women’s football, Baroness Sue Campbell, has expressed support. confident of the ‘Discover My Talent’ plan and project, which kicked off last summer, will help create a ‘significant shift’ in diversity at the end of the England women’s game.
The Professional Players Association has launched a ‘See It Achieve It’ campaign led by former Liverpool, Everton, Notts County and Brighton player Fern Whelan.
Its aim is to create a network for existing female Super League players of ethnic minority backgrounds in which they will receive peer mentoring and individual support and it says that Increasing visibility of diverse role models is the primary goal.
The union says there are 29 black, Asian or mixed players among the 300 players in the WSL.
How diverse is Euro 2022?
The league has yet to reveal any metrics based on diversity and Sky Sports News contacted each of the participating football associations to request this information.
Germany told Sky Sports News they have two multi-ethnic players in their squad, Iceland and Belgium both reporting one player. Austria do not have any non-white players in their squad, while Denmark said they hold no information on that type of squad.
But there was a marked lack of ethnic diversity visible on the ground…
How does Euro 2022’s lack of diversity compare?
Research presented by Leon Mann MBE at ‘D-Word 4’ conference organized by Black Collective of Media in Sport provides some context for the British figures.
Mann revealed Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the men’s Euros last summer had 11 players out of 26 – 42 per cent – who were black or mixed.
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Leon Mann MBE, founder of Black Collective of Media in Sport, said he hopes his award can help spread diversity and promote the work that many people are doing.
Follow Partners of Black Players – co-founded by QPR duo Les Ferdinand and Chris Ramsey, former Birmingham and Derby full-back Michael Johnson and former top female Eartha Pond player – around 43 per cent of players in the Premier League are black.
The Szymanski report commissioned by the Black Football Partnership shows a dramatic drop in representation when it comes to leaving the pitch
But when it comes to the women’s Super League, the top league of women’s football in the UK, the Professional Footballers’ Association last week revealed just 29 of the WSL’s 300 players – 9.7 per cent – are from diverse ethnicities. form.
In Phil Neville’s England squad at the last Women’s World Cup, there were two multi-ethnic players in the squad – Nikita Parris and Demi Stokes. The same two players were both in Wiegman’s squad and remained unused substitutes in England’s win over Austria.
These numbers provide a stark reminder of the chronic underrepresentation problem in the late game for girls and women.
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