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Surely it’s more wrong to say “this team isn’t black enough”, all the players got there on merit

Brazil, Netherlands, Canada, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Australia, USA,

Have the English completely embraced American race theories? Skin color is the only thing that matters?

Agreed, way to few men in the their womens team

This is a perfectly reasonable statement acknowledging a systemic lack of diversity in women's football, and commiting to long term solutions to grow women's football around the world. Anyone who actually read this article could not possibly get upset by this

This is an issue in women's football in England more generally. Looking at the percentage of the men's and women's England football teams that are black or mixed race, there's a stark difference. Black girls clearly aren't getting the same opportunities at youth and grass roots levels as black boys, and the barriers that girls face getting into football obviously disproportionately affect working class girls and girls from ethnic minority backgrounds. It'll take time to change it, but it will pay dividends in the long term.

This country also needs to shed a lot of its prejudices about other ethnic minority groups in football, particularly South Asian people.

Whats wrong with people? This sounds like OCD intrusive thoughts!!! It's not wrong to look the same as long as fair chance is given to everyone. We just don't pick diversity to be diverse. If they're not talented, they won't make the team. As simple as that!!

Looking forward to Crystal Palace's statement on their lack of diversity for the Men's team.

The French Men's national team should release a statement too.

Ramsdale might become starter for Arsenal after all

People saying "What" in the comments clearly haven't read the article and jumping to conclusions.

It's not hard to see the glaring differences between women's and men's football in the UK. While a lot of Premier League stars are from working class backgrounds, most WSL players are from middle class families instead.

Supporting grassroots, accessible women's football is only going to help in giving young girls opportunities in life, and spots talent which would never get the chance otherwise.

Good on them for recognising this tbh.

Whatever happened to the best person for the job?

Bizarre.

what

Before everyone gets angry, they're not saying that they're gonna purposely pick more players of different ethnicities. They're saying that they're working on encouraging more of them into football

what

White men are gathering in this thread

Just pick the best.

Inflammatory headline but very much worth a read. It's more about class, recruitment and the fact it doesn't happen very naturally in the women's game.

My fuckin club 💪🏾

Absolutely appalling that this statement had to be made.

Pick those who are the most competent not the most diverse. Ffs this is beyond absurd 🤦🏼‍♂️

Fucks sake, who gives a toss what colour their skin is. Priority should be people who can pass a ball

I don’t understand why people have a problem with this. The squad is pretty much entirely white. That is not representative of North London.

This is a joke?

The lack of diversity in the current crop of Arsenal and England players is down to the same thing that has held women’s football back: access.

The sharp rise in popularity of women’s football has coincided with a huge increase in quality, which came about because more people are given access to play at a younger age.

There are still issues where lack of facilities mean that girls’ teams effectively get disbanded at a certain age, but what is currently available is a significant growth from the FA literally banning women for 50 years, but it is far from universal. You don’t need to be a sociologist to understand that when you’re in the process of improving access to facilities, the richer schools in areas with more space will get there first, and poorer inner city schools will be behind.

The result of this will create a skew where the currently crop of elite footballers are disproportionately white. As access increases in communities that are more mixed, in part because of these commitments from clubs like Arsenal, you’ll see things start to balance out and start to look more like the men’s demographic makeup.

Is it really such a crime for your XI to have the same skin colour? Are 11 white people not allowed to be together without it requiring a club statement anymore?

Fucking hell man.

Won’t be happy till every team is just Black.

Or how about they judge players based on skill

Forced diversity is not the move. Unless the team is deliberately kept white, there should be no issue.

You have to start this at the grassroots level.

This is fucking stupid

And not the best players as a priority?