{"id":296749,"date":"2023-10-22T11:24:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-22T11:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=296749"},"modified":"2023-10-22T11:24:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T11:24:16","slug":"arsenal-break-silence-over-all-white-squad-team-photo-after-race-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/arsenal-break-silence-over-all-white-squad-team-photo-after-race-row\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal break silence over all-white squad team photo after race row"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Arsenal break silence over all-white squad team photo after race row as they accept their women&#8217;s team &#8216;does not reflect the diversity that exists across the club&#8217;<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>A race row broke out over Arsenal Women&#8217;s team photo earlier this month<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>The north London side have now issued a statement about their core values<\/b><\/li>\n<li><strong>Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport&#8217;s podcast &#8216;It&#8217;s All Coming Up!&#8217;\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Arsenal have broken their silence on fan criticism that their women&#8217;s first team does not feature a single player of colour, claiming that addressing the lack of diversity is a &#8216;priority&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 27-player team photo went viral online, soon amassing more than four million views, as fans criticised the &#8216;shocking&#8217; and &#8216;concerning&#8217; absence of any players of colour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal were approached by <span>Mail Sport<\/span> following the row over the photo but they did not respond.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But they have now gone on record to address supporters&#8217; concerns.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We acknowledge our current women&#8217;s first-team squad does not reflect the diversity that exists across the club and the communities we represent,&#8217; Arsenal said in a statement to The Athletic.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/11\/76551033-12658839-Arsenal_Women_s_squad_photo_for_the_2023_24_season_went_viral_af-a-68_1697971559981.jpg\" height=\"442\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Arsenal Women&#8217;s squad photo for the 2023-24 season went viral over the lack of diversity<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Increasing participation among young women and girls from diverse backgrounds is a key priority for us at academy level, with specific measures in place to improve pathways and accessibility.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The statement added: &#8216;Across all our teams, including our men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s academies, we&#8217;re proud of our players from diverse backgrounds who have contributed to our history, success and culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s a priority for the club to continue to drive greater diversity and inclusion and create a sense of belonging for everyone connected to the club.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Unimpressed Arsenal fans took to X &#8211; formerly Twitter &#8211; to criticise the lack of diversity and players of colour in their latest squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One user wrote: &#8216;No professional team, mens or womens, should be able to have a team the comprises of all white players in 2023.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/11\/76551029-12658839-image-a-69_1697971627806.jpg\" height=\"224\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/11\/76550691-12658839-image-a-70_1697971631411.jpg\" height=\"227\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/11\/76550683-12658839-image-a-72_1697971639831.jpg\" height=\"253\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/11\/76550687-12658839-image-a-73_1697971643104.jpg\" height=\"260\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Arsenal soon came in for heavy criticism but they have now broken their silence and have said that redressing the lack of diversity is a &#8216;priority&#8217; for them at every level of the club&#8217;s teams<\/p>\n<p>Another wrote: &#8216;Lovely picture and that but god it&#8217;s so concerning that one of the biggest clubs in the world doesn&#8217;t have a single poc in the squad.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>A third said: &#8216;You mean to tell me arsenals stakeholders &amp; the execs see this and think this okay? The head coaches think this is okay? The PLAYERS look at each other think this is okay? ALL WHITE?? Please @ArsenalWFC @Arsenal there needs to be an emergency meeting &amp; change.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>A fourth wrote: &#8216;We don&#8217;t have a single black woman player. That&#8217;s frightening.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The issue around diversity in the women&#8217;s game came to even greater prominence last year when discussing the Lionesses squad that won Euro 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There were just three mixed-heritage players involved for the Lionesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ex-Arsenal striker Ian Wright called it a &#8216;systemic problem&#8217; while former England international Eniola Aluko said at the time that changes need to be made in recruitment to tackle the lack of diversity.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0\u00a0Professional Footballers&#8217; Association (PFA) estimated that in 2021-22 close to 10 per cent of players in the Women&#8217;s Super League. It is now believed that figure has risen by five per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/11\/76551109-12658839-Last_summer_former_England_international_Eni_Aluko_called_for_ch-a-74_1697971647659.jpg\" height=\"358\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Last summer former England international Eni Aluko called for changes in recruitment in the women&#8217;s game to tackle the issue of a lack of diversity\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s about making sure we&#8217;re widening the pool of players for Sarina Wiegman [Lionesses manager] to choose from and for the academies to choose from,&#8217; Aluko previously told ITV.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The talent is there. The FA needs to sit down and look at whether they can build centres in certain areas.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Just change our practises a little bit. With the professionalism of the game it&#8217;s maybe excluded people a little bit.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The Football Association swiftly launched its Discover My Talent programme aimed at improving accessibility to football, which the governing body hopes will improve diversity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off\u00a0is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football, launching with a preview show today and every week this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12658839\/Arsenal-break-silence-white-squad-team-photo-race-row-accept-womens-team-does-not-reflect-diversity-exists-club.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal break silence over all-white squad team photo after race row as they accept their women&#8217;s team &#8216;does not reflect <span class=\"more-text\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - 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