Daily Mail article on Manchester City’s football player Tosin Adarabioyo
In 2018 a UK tabloid published articles on two footballers from different races on the same subject of buying a house. The then Manchester City centre -back Tosin Adarabiyo, a young black footballer, and Phil Foden, left winger and his white team mate were subject to scrutiny. Adarabiyo was represented as ‘callous’ and in a negative light for “splashing” out on a mansion despite having never started in a Premier League match’ because he bought a lavish home. The other article highlighted the white footballer Phil Foden who was represented as the epitome of generosity for his gesture on buying a house – one that has ‘set up his future’.
Why is it that two footballers who play for the very same club and who purchase mansions with their hard-earned money get such glaringly different media coverage? A perfect example of how the media fuels ideological racism and preconceived stereotypical views on a community. This issue of racial stereotypes is a, sensitive one raising questions of intentions and how it is perceived, in many cases, ignorance or unconscious biases.
Sport is heavily interlinked with culture and the society that we live in. Global sport has provided a platform for nations, individuals, and communities to come together to unite and speak a ‘universal language’. It’s then interesting to note that even in one of the most unifying platforms, there exists biases and social inequalities. Social cultural studies and scholars have investigated how popular media reinforces an ideological power of hierarchies and a deep-rooted system of inequality This ranges all the way from white privilege to lack of inclusion based on gender and other forms of barriers that undermine diversity.
Media impacts how we see these players – one bad and one good. These persist even though over the years we have come to acknowledge that equality is for everyone. Whether it comes to matters of Race, Gender, Class or any other inequities, equality is a birthright and there is hope. Media texts and coverage on any tournament or league and in this case the English Premier League (EPL) impact and contributes toward consumer thoughts and beliefs and that is the power of popular media.
There are more Black footballers now in the English Premier League (EPL) as opposed to a decade ago. According to the well-known website of ‘Talksport’ there are now double the amount of players from an ethnic minority, Asians and players from the Black community in the league with a proportion of 33% in the 2017-2018 season.
Racial equality is more than kneeling in unity before a game or fighting against online racism. This needs to be an educational opportunity, about finding ways to be inclusive of all cultural groups and races and giving people equal opportunity.
It’s important to note that media impacts how individuals view cultural groups. Racial stereotypes may not always be negative but they overlook complexities of a group and present the public with a misrepresentation of people and black footballers, in this instance.