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New York Times
17 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Football Architects: The England DNA behind the pursuit of tournament-winning teams
This is the fifth of a six-part series looking at figures who have played a pivotal role in a modern football success story. The first piece, on the rebuilding of Ajax, can be found here. Part two, on Belgium becoming No 1 in the FIFA Rankings is here. Part three, on the rise of Croatian football is here. And part four on the sport's data pioneers is here. Each article comes with a related podcast, which can be found here on The Athletic FC Tactics Podcast feed. The rationale is simple, John McDermott says: 'Under pressure, players often revert to type.' He is explaining why, in December 2014, just six months after England had finished bottom of their World Cup group, Dan Ashworth and Gareth Southgate announced the 'England DNA' at St George's Park. Ashworth was the director of elite development at The FA and Southgate had just completed his first year as England Under-21s men's head coach. Advertisement The DNA was an overarching term for their 'approach to elite player development' that applied to England age-group teams from under-15s through to the men's under-21s and women's under-23s. It laid out the vision for future internationals to be exceptional across four 'corners' — technical/tactical, physical, psychological, social — and contained five core elements. Best practice for coaches was outlined, expectations for the 'future England player' were listed and the FA said holistic support would be provided. They articulated how age-group teams should play, which would be 'the strongest demonstration of the England DNA'. A focus was placed on a two-way understanding of heritage and culture in an increasingly diverse country. Over the next decade, England's senior men had their greatest spell of sustained success at tournament level, reaching successive European Championship finals in 2021 and 2024, and a World Cup semi-final in 2018. The senior women went even better, winning the Euros on home soil in the summer of 2022, finishing as runners-up at the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and then retaining their Euros title in Switzerland this summer. The notion of 'proper England' became a buzzword that powered them to the title. Success in age-group football has been abundant: the women's under-17s were Euros runners-up last May; the men's under-21s won the Euros again this summer, like they had in 2023; the men's under-17, under-19 and under-20 sides have all won continental or world silverware since 2017. The England DNA project was an important moment, comprehensively covering how to instil cultural change at the same time as catalysing technical and tactical evolution. 'Traditionally the Dutch, and more recently the Spanish, have very clear playing identities,' McDermott says. Advertisement He has been the technical director at the FA since early 2021 — having been Les Reed's assistant previously — and first worked there in 1995. McDermott coached the under-16 through to under-21 national teams in the mid-2000s, and worked in the academies of Leeds United, Watford, and Tottenham Hotspur. 'A player isn't going to change profile in a World Cup final into something which they aren't at their club,' he says. 'There's got to be a reflection (within England teams) of how they play at their clubs, in the Premier League, the Champions League.' The DNA was intended as the foundation of the FA's quest for tournament-winning teams. In 2014, though, England's senior men's side were on a run of eight major tournaments where their ceiling was the quarter-finals. The pressure kept compounding and players kept crumbling under it. So where did they look for inspiration? 'I would think we're all probably magpies,' McDermott says. 'If you were to speak to Pep Guardiola, you'd hear about the influence that Johan Cruyff had on him, the influence Rinus Michels had on Cruyff, and the influence that Vic Buckingham had on Michels. 'There's not this ivory tower where somebody comes up with this formula that nobody's ever thought of.' Consequently, Ashworth started close to home, visiting national training centres in France (Clairefontaine) and the Netherlands (Zeist). 'You speak to a lot of people. We're trying to get as many experiences as we can. You go to America, see what's happening in other sports, and ask: 'What do we do next? What's the evolution of the DNA?'. 'There's this curiosity where we're trying to look and then mould ideas into the English way, to make sure that's aligned with how the league is and where the playing system is.' 'I remember being at a FIFA conference and one of the speeches described how in senior football you're winning the next game or the next tournament, while in youth football it's about winning the next 10 years. I thought that was really clever, but there are subtleties.' Advertisement As such, they were not prescriptive with formations like Belgium (4-3-3), the Netherlands (4-3-3) and Italy (4-diamond-2) can be. 'It's less about the specific system and more about how it looks and how the players perform, playing the style that we want — expansive football, dominating the ball, playing through the thirds.' It is why the 'how we play' component of England DNA included transition as a phase of the game — counter-attacks and counter-pressing were given as much emphasis as build-up and defensive shape. 'The principles around in-possession, out-of-possession, transitions and set plays, I'm sure Alf Ramsey (England manager between 1963 and 1974) was talking about that. The examples and language changes. 'Have those principles been honed? Have they been better presented? Is the teaching better now with young players? Yeah, it probably is. 'One of the mantras we have is 'unearth, connect, develop and win'. Again Howard (Wilkinson) would have had that, and Dan (Ashworth) would have that in different words, but it's updating the wallpaper, updating the furniture.' It is an area where McDermott feels they have made progress but are still not perfect. He talks about 'footballing culture' and how players arrive at national team camps in the technical and tactical moulds of what their club coaches want. This was 'quite apparent' to McDermott when he started his current role. 'You'd see the Leeds players under Marcelo Bielsa, the Manchester City players under Pep Guardiola, some of the Liverpool players under Jurgen Klopp, and they'd want to do slightly different things — Leeds players going to man-to-man, Manchester City players wanting to stay on the ball, Liverpool players wanting heavy-metal football.' England DNA was therefore not just a blueprint but also something to unite players, who might spend so much of their season playing in different systems and styles to one another. He points out that, with age-group teams — whom the DNA was actually for — players can come from different levels of the English footballing pyramid. Increasingly, they are venturing into other major European leagues too. McDermott is talking via video call from Slovakia, where he was with England's men's under-21s at the European Championship. He was speaking mid-tournament as Lee Carsley's side defended their title from 2023 with an almost completely different squad, beating Germany 3-2 in the final compared with the one that was victorious over Spain two years prior. Advertisement Aidy Boothroyd once said that, if being the senior head coach was an 'impossible job' then being under-21s head coach was 'utterly impossible'. Trying to win tournaments and keep progressing talent to the senior side, he felt, were at odds with each other. For McDermott to say 'it's not win at all costs' feels almost ironic, considering the relative recent success of the under-21s and other age-group teams. 'There's a way in which we want to play and there's a way in which we want to get to those finals and win. It's finding that right balance between winning and developing — the two are very closely interlinked.' In 2008, England's men failed to qualify for the European Championship, and, the very next year, the under-21s were beaten 4-0 by Germany in the age-group final. Does the unreliability of memory mean that year is misremembered as the nadir from where change stemmed? 'There was not one day when it all happened. To say that this all began in 2008 disrespects some of the brilliant brains we've had in the past. It's definitely an evolution.' Success, as the saying goes, has many fathers. For McDermott, how you view the progression 'probably depends on who you speak to. I guess I'm steeped in FA history'. He namechecks Bobby Robson, who managed England's men's side for 95 games and took them to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup in Italy. Dave Sexton also gets credit from McDermott. He was twice England men's under-21s coach and led them to Euros wins in 1982 and 1984, back-to-back winners like Carsley's teams. McDermott traces things all the way back to Walter Winterbottom, England's first ever men's coach from 1946 to 1962. 'Followed by Allen Wade and then I worked under Charles Hughes. They all had their principles of play or how they saw the game being played,' McDermott says. Advertisement He is not sequentially listing England coaches, but figures who were inspirational in shaping — for better or worse — English footballing identity. Wade became the FA's director of coaching in 1963 and wrote The FA's Guide to Training and Coaching in 1970; Hughes was Wade's assistant — he'd later hold the role himself — and coached the Great Britain Olympic football team for a decade from 1964-1974. 'Charles was probably epitomised quite wrongly,' he says while squinting, as though digging into his subconscious to remember correctly. 'He wrote a book called The Winning Formula around direct play. He probably didn't sell his ideas as well (as he could).' Hughes is best known now for building on the work of Charles Reep, who was one of the earliest statistical analysts in English football. Reep collected data by hand in the 1950s. It must be remembered that this was innovative at the time, even if by modern standards the notational methods were simplistic and the findings over-reductive. Reep identified that most goals were scored from sequences of fewer than four passes, half of all goals were following opposition-half regains, and one in 10 shots were scored. The problem, as future research showed, was he did not adjust for frequency in a low-scoring sport. There were fewer goals from long passing sequences or deep build-ups because these happened less. Hughes, lauded by Robson in his autobiography, spun this into a concept he called the position of maximum opportunity (POMO); this stressed the importance of flooding the box with crosses and always having a player in line with the back post. Hence English football developed a reputation as direct and agricultural, perhaps cemented by the poor-quality, muddy pitches that it was often played on, which did little to facilitate intricate, short passing. Advertisement McDermott describes 1997 as 'a landmark,' with Howard Wilkinson, four months after being sacked as Leeds United manager, becoming technical director at the FA. He says it 'turbocharged' the development of English football. 'That was the start of the academies, starting to get full-time coaches. Before that we had centres of excellence. Howard was very much about the facilities and the time spent (coaching).' Wilkinson authored the Charter for Quality, a 90-page document of 32 aspects that outlined how the FA would maximise player potential, with specific demands on facilities and coaching, and proposing an action plan for small-sided games programme for players aged seven to 10. 'After Howard, there was Trevor Brooking. Trevor concentrated around improving techniques that built upon Howard's work. He brought in a document called The Future Game.' That technical guide, published in 2010, was three-times as big as the Charter for Quality, In it, Brooking outlines a vision of developing players who are technically excellent and innovative coaches who train them into existence. The backdrop of the time was England's age-group teams underachieving compared with European counterparts, with game-time for English players in the Premier League on the decline. McDermott explains that developing technicians was Brooking's 'passion,' owing to Brooking himself being physically lacking but two-footed and technical — he made over 500 appearances for West Ham between 1966 and 1984, twice won the FA Cup, and played 47 times for England. 'The EPPP (Elite Player Performance Plan) came in around that time (2012) within the academies. It turbo-boosted the initial work that Howard did — more investment came into clubs.' Wilkinson, McDermott feels, built the foundations for Brooking to try and improve players from. From that, 'Dan (Ashworth) came in and brought the DNA we now work off. Maybe because I've been around a long time and I've known a lot of the players, I don't see milestones.' The crowning moment for the England DNA on the men's side was at Wembley in summer 2021, nearly seven years after it was announced. England were 2-1 up in extra time against Denmark. Nothing says pressure like being one goal ahead in the 116th minute of a European Championship semi-final on home soil. Advertisement They had been dropping deeper and deeper and restoring to defending the box — reverting to the England type of old. But then something clicked. Denmark had used their subs and had to chase the game with 10 men when an injury hit. Raheem Sterling picked up a loose ball after England cleared a Denmark corner, and the two and a half minutes that followed were everything Brooking once dreamt of. England did not score. They did not have a shot. They did not cross the ball. What they did do was stitch together 53 passes, the longest possession of the tournament. An exhausted Denmark were pulled left and right as England went up and down the pitch and from side to side. There were one-twos, triangles, even an audacious switch from centre-back Harry Maguire to marauding right-back Kieran Trippier. England captain Harry Kane said 'that was a great sign of what we're about, that shows the unselfishness of the team. We ended up keeping it for a good few minutes and killed Denmark off. It was our night tonight.' They ended up being penalty kicks away from becoming a tournament-winning team, losing against Italy in the final. That England team, managed by Southgate (he stepped up to the senior team in 2016) manifested into the very blend of everything that he and Ashworth explained the DNA was in 2014. Parts of Southgate's team were stereotypically English, being so defensively strong and compact — they only conceded twice in seven games and neither were from open play — and yet they made a first tournament final for nearly 60 years by keeping possession. They were, to borrow McDermott's term, 'cosmopolitan'. England's player of the tournament, Sterling, was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in Wembley. McDermott says that there are some age-group teams that can have a majority of players with multiple nationalities. Advertisement 'I don't remember really having competition on recruitment,' he says of the early 2000s. 'Competing for young talent (now) is probably more similar to competing for talent at a club than it was 20 years ago. 'The question also becomes an ethical one as they get a bit older. What I'm always aware of is giving somebody one or two caps, but they might have got 50 or 60 caps for another nation. Making good judgements in the interest of the player becomes a dimension.' But despite England's age-group success, McDermott still thinks of those who might have slipped through the net. One mention of Belgium's futures teams — which run parallel to their age-group sides and are for late-developing players — prompts him to bring up the relative age effect. That is the term to describe the overrepresentation of players born earlier in the year (academic year in England, calendar year elsewhere in Europe), because they tend to be the first to physically develop. 'It's always fascinated me. Quite early on, I didn't see the talent of Ashley Young when I was at Watford, we didn't offer Ashley a contract at under 16. Thankfully he stayed on. That was a near miss that I had very early in my career.' 'We are trying to get our coaches to be aware of that — it's something we do within all of our recruitment meetings. I don't want our coaches to be frightened of playing a younger player or a physically immature player just in case we lose.' He cites stats from the under-19 Euros where just 17 per cent of players were fourth-quartile babies (i.e. the youngest in their year groups). 'That includes a lot of countries that have been looking at futures projects for some time,' McDermott points out. 'It probably balances off a little bit as you get older and sometimes those August birthdays are probably more resilient because of it, because they've survived. We had quite a few when I was at Spurs: Kane, (Ryan) Mason, (Andros) Townsend were all late in the year. 'If I had a magic wand that'd be one thing I would probably look to address, especially in this country but across world football as well — it's everywhere.'
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Mark Clattenburg claims 'Chelsea wanted payback' when star 'swung for him' in racism row
John Obi Mikel allegedly burst into Mark Clattenburg's dressing room "swinging" for the Premier League referee, who has accused Chelsea of "wanting payback" for a previous racism row Ex-Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has accused Chelsea of sparking a racism row to get back at him for John Terry 's own alleged racism incident. The former official, 50, has also shed light on his controversy surrounding the club, accusing John Obi Mikel of trying to punch him. Back in October 2012, Clattenburg took charge of Chelsea 's 3-2 defeat at home to Manchester United. After the heated match, he was accused of making a racial slur to Mikel during the game. He was later cleared by The FA, while the midfielder was banned and fined £60,000 for threatening the official. Speaking to Undr The Cosh, Clattenburg was asked if he thought Chelsea felt they had to back their player after the Nigerian star's accusation. But Clattenburg instead speculated that the west London club were trying to get 'payback' after their captain Terry was banned for an incident involving QPR 's Anton Ferdinand a year earlier. Terry was banned and fined £220,000 by The FA after they found he had racially abused Ferdinand, though he was cleared by Westminster Magistrates' Court of any criminal wrongdoing. Clattenburg, who retired in 2017, said: 'I don't believe it had anything to do with that [backing Mikel]. I think it was a payback, I honestly do. For John Terry and Anton Ferdinand, QPR vs Chelsea, when John was accused of saying some words to Anton. 'The balance of probability is different from The FA (Football Association] to the English law. So The FA charged him and he was found guilty. So I feel like that [the Mikel incident] was to get back at the refereeing. 'Because [Chelsea vs United] was a controversial game. I gave a goal, the assistant didn't give an offside and the third goal was controversial. Also, I'd sent off Fernando Torres for a dive after already sending off another Chelsea player earlier in the match, so I'm probably guilty of enhancing the tension. 'They were probably upset with the result and I just felt that they went bang, 'I'm after the referee.' Because I didn't know I'd been accused of anything until an hour after the match when I was walking through Heathrow Airport and it's breaking news on the phone.' Explaining his bust-up with Mikel, Clattenburg alleged: 'The drug testing was next to our dressing room with Chelsea and there was a bit of commotion outside our dressing room so I opened the door thinking, 'What the f***ing hell's going on here?' As I opened the door Obi Mikel came bursting through." Clattenburg claimed: 'Then he started swinging punches. I ducked and he tried to pin me against the wall. I didn't know what had gone on at that point. 'A delegate came down and after that attempted assault, all they were talking about was what I was going to report – nothing about racism, only what happened in the dressing room with Obi Mikel. An hour later, I was accused of being a racist.' Mirror Football has contacted John Obi Mikel and Chelsea FC for comment regarding the allegations made. The Durham-born referee recently explained how the accusation of racism marked a desperate period for him and his family, even going on to say that he may have taken his own life if it was not for his young daughter. Clattenburg said on The High Performance podcast: "My daughter. My child, because she didn't deserve it. She was only little. "I brought her into the world and it was my responsibility to look after her. If I wasn't so strong-willed, I'm not sure I would be here today." Clattenburg, who also has a son Nathan from his first marriage, added that he would also have liked to have quit football but couldn't because he "had a mortgage to pay". Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mirror
'I've played football with broken leg - my heart scare on plane didn't worry me'
Stuart Pearce infamously broke his leg but played on in 1999 (Image: Jamie McDonald /Allsport) Severe chest pains and a searing heart rate at 30,000 feet is enough to traumatise anybody. Yet, for Stuart Pearce, the former England captain affectionately known as 'Psycho', there was no out-of-body experience nor life-changing lesson to be learned. 'Terminator' may have been a more suitable nickname for Pearce, who has a history of treating debilitating pain as a mild inconvenience. In March, before hopping on a flight from Las Vegas to London, the ex-Manchester City and Nottingham Forest defender felt increasing pain within his chest. Not to make a fuss, he planned to sleep it off during his journey back across the pond. The pain did not ease and before he knew it, the plane was diverting to Newfoundland, Canada, where he would spend five days in hospital. A virus had caused his heart rate to soar to 155 beats per minute, a hugely dangerous and life-threatening speed. In hospital, his heart was stopped and then restarted to bring its speed back to normal levels. But despite the most terrifying of all health scares taking place at the worst possible moment, Pearce told Mirror Football that his old school mentality helped him through. He said: "I am very matter-of-fact, to be honest with you. "Even at the time, because my family have got no medical history of heart problems, I almost went through with a, 'Right, I'm in your hands. Get on with it. What do you need me to do?' mentality. "I'm very matter-of-fact as a person. I've always been like that. It has served me well to be fair. I do not overthink things. That's been the case. Pearce opened up about his heart scare in March (Image: Richard Pelham - The FA/The FA via Getty Image) "I've probably tried to use it, when I can, to help other people, if you like, to make sure they get themselves checked out regularly. I've got the League Managers' Association (LMA), which I am a member of. They go through a lot of medical checks. "I had a heart check last summer as well. Regularly, I get checked up as well anyway. I know I am on top of these things. I'd like to turn round and say, because it would be a better story, that I have had a life-changing experience, but I am not wired that way." Barely a fortnight after his huge health scare, Pearce was back to work, commentating on England's narrow 2-0 victory over Albania. He has never been one to wallow in his own pain. Even a broken leg was not enough to stop him from finishing a half of football. Stuart Pearce was back commentating barely two weeks after his scare (Image: 2025 Crystal Pix/MB Media) In September 1999, playing for West Ham against Watford at the start of the Premier League campaign, Pearce went in for a characteristically hard challenge against Micah Hyde. The bruising and powerful nature of the challenge gave the 78-cap ex-England international a limp for the rest of the match. In Pearce's mind, it was no drama. 'Just run it off,' he said to himself. He came out of the challenge assuming he had broken his shin pad. He had actually broken his leg. "I went in for a challenge and I thought my shin pad had cracked, because I had heard a cracking noise," he said. "But it was my bone, rather than my shin pad. Stuart Pearce's toughness was iconic during his playing career (Image: Phil Cole/ALLSPORT) "I fractured my tibia just before half-time. I came to the side of the pitch. I hadn't realised. I knew it was painful, but you don't realise that, near enough, the bone has gone right through. "I tried to ice it at half-time, not knowing, thinking it was just a bang on my shin bone. When I tried to run in the tunnel to loosen it up a little bit, I knew full well something was not quite right at that stage when the adrenaline stopped pumping. "We all have a slightly different pain threshold, and when you are involved in football, sometimes, bizarrely, you can get away with doing things you couldn't in everyday life. I put mine down to a little bit of ignorance and not knowing that my shin bone was broken." Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £192 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more. Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games next season, an increase of up to 100 more.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
United in grief, Ella Toone and Beth Mead form a special bond to shine at Euro 2025
Ella Toone stopped and sent a kiss towards the sky. In moments such as scoring for your country at a major tournament, the most important people can become those who are not there. Toone is 25 and is already appearing at her third major tournament for England. But it's also the first she has played in since the loss of her father Nick to prostate cancer last September. Another goal at Euro 2025 was dedicated to the memory of her most reliable supporter. That Toone has hit red-hot form at the Euros should not be taken for granted. Against Wales, Toone scored, made two assists and had completed 100 per cent of her passes before being taken off at half-time to ensure she did not pick up a second yellow card of the tournament that would have resulted in a suspension for the quarter-finals. But for those 45 minutes Toone played with freedom and assurance, displaying a clarity of thought to find the spaces in the tightly-packed Wales defence while creating other gaps elsewhere. There was the vision to see the risky pass, and the confidence to execute it. In a year where the world must have felt so cruel, Toone has arrived at Euro 2025 with a clear-minded understanding of being exactly where she needs to be. Ella Toone dedicates her goal in England's 6-1 win to her late father Nick (The FA via Getty Images) Her grief, though, has not disappeared. Every day is different and being away from home at a major tournament can present its own challenges. But when Toone is with England she can rely on the support and guidance of Beth Mead, who lost her mother June to ovarian cancer in January 2023 - just six months after winning the Euros. This is Mead's first tournament since losing a parent, too, and the forward also pointed to the sky as she scored in England's 6-1 win over Wales. 'We've really bonded over such a terrible thing,' Toone said. 'It's nice to have someone who's been through it and who understands and knows exactly what's going on and what's going on in my head as well. We've definitely got each other's backs. We're proud of each other and what's nice is that we're constantly talking about them. We know we're doing them proud.' 'We both said in the first game we really struggled a little bit,' Mead said. 'You look to the stands for your person who was standing there and they're not there anymore. I think my mum was the first person I would look for in the stands. I obviously understand what Ella felt in that moment and it's just special to be able to have that moment, think about them and dedicate it to them.' Toone opened up on the death of her father and the pain of his loss in an article for the Players Tribune in January. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer the day after Toone scored in England's Euro 2022 final victory over Germany, but Toone was not told exactly how ill he was until almost two years later and after Manchester United won the FA Cup final last May. By September, a few days before his 60th birthday, he was gone. (Getty Images) Toone didn't take time off at first after her father passed away before the first day of the season. She played on for Manchester United, believing it's what he would have wanted, but struggled for form and it wasn't until she injured her calf in training in November that she paused to reflect. The Players Tribune article was a way for Toone to understand and process her grief. By the start of 2025, she was transformed on the pitch and it has carried into the Euros. Mead called her performance against Wales 'unbelievable'. 'I think Tooney's really coming into her own,' Mead said. 'Sometimes in situations where you feel a little bit low, it brings you to the top of your game. I have felt that and done that before and been in a tough place and come back, and I think you can see that she's been given that kind of aura, that type of energy, and she deserves everything she's getting right now.' Mead said she has been a 'shoulder' for Toone to lean on while they are away in Switzerland. Toone will often come to her questioning the emotions she is still processing and how long that journey will last. 'I'm like, 'It's completely normal. I've been there. I still feel like it now',' Mead said. 'She says she talks so easily about it but ultimately I've had a little bit longer to process it compared to her. We all deal with it differently and I think she's dealing pretty amazingly with it right now.' (The FA via Getty Images) Mead has been on her own journey too, and her goal against Wales was her first for England at the major tournament since she won the golden boot at Euro 2022 after missing the 2023 World Cup due to injury. The chance to take her own moment and dedicate it to her mother June had been long overdue. 'I was absolutely buzzing for Beth,' Toone said. 'That's the Beth that I saw in 2022 at the Euros when she took an extra touch in the box and sat a few defenders down and got a goal. I'm so happy for her. I was buzzing for her that she got that tonight and we both could celebrate to the sky. I'm sure they'll be up there with a few pints in their hand watching us.'
Daily Mail
23-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Jess Carter racism exposes stark reality with women's football, writes PAUL ELLIOTT... normalising such behaviour would betray the game's remarkable growth
When England defender Jess Carter revealed she had been subjected to a barrage of racist abuse on social media during the UEFA European Women's Championship, it exposed a stark reality: the women's game is thriving on the pitch, yet it remains deeply vulnerable to discrimination and online abuse off it. Carter's decision to step away from her own social media accounts highlighted both her vulnerability and the support she received from England Head Coach Sarina Wiegman, her teammates, and The Football Association. Within hours of her statement, the FA had engaged UK police and had begun to collaborate with social media companies to trace those responsible – demonstrating an impressively swift and decisive response. In October 2023, the Online Safety Act became law, ensuring social media platforms have a duty to protect users from content such as racist abuse. Platforms have a responsibility to identify and remove harmful content including all forms of hate speech - with Ofcom responsible for enforcing the legislation At its core, the fight against racism in football is also a struggle for social justice and human rights. Women constitute roughly 50 percent of the UK population - collectively a formidable constituency capable of driving cultural change. The unwavering support shown by Wiegman, her backroom staff, and the Lionesses squad for Jess Carter illustrates how leadership and community can create a 'safe space' for victims, affirming that togetherness is a powerful counterweight to hatred. But solidarity must extend beyond England's camp. Earlier this season, Jamaican international and Manchester City striker Khadija Shaw, fresh from a record-breaking campaign, endured similarly vile online attacks despite her status as a role model both in the Women's Super League and her homeland. The strength of condemnation that followed from club, teammates and fans alike showed that confronting prejudice is vital. The nature of abuse has evolved. My generation often faced racist abuse face-to-face; on the pitch, in the terraces, on the streets - today's players endure 24/7 digital onslaughts. Yet the principle is unchanged: those responsible must be pursued with every conceivable vigour, subjected to the most serious sanctions available and denied any refuge in anonymity. Zero tolerance cannot be a slogan—it must be a legal and cultural imperative. Allowing racism to normalise in the women's game would betray its remarkable growth. As grassroots participation surges, welcoming girls of all ethnicities and backgrounds, the duty of care to protect them - and to provide clear pathways into coaching and administration - is paramount for long-term sustainability. We must learn from the men's game, where three generations of potential coaches and executives were lost: despite black players accounting for 43 percent of Premier League and 38 percent of EFL squads, only 4.4 percent of coaches and 1.6 percent of administrators are black. Such underrepresentation is deeply concerning. Professional football club's charitable arms already harness the sport's reach in order to challenge racial and gender discrimination across society. Carter's experience highlights the need for equality, diversity, and inclusion to be embedded not only in club culture but, also in the governance frameworks that shape football's future Equality and inclusion training must be mandatory across all sectors - Charlton Athletic's highly regarded inclusion training exemplifies this, providing powerful insights that promote inclusion and respect. To future-proof the next generation, anti-discrimination and anti-racism education should also be woven into the national curriculum. Racism in football casts a long, damaging shadow – it is deep rooted, corrodes society, and must be met with zero tolerance backed by firm sanctions. As the Lionesses themselves rightly demand: 'those behind this online poison must be held accountable'. The racist abuse directed at Carter intensifies and further strengthens the urgent need for stronger accountability measures within football, highlighting why the establishment of an independent football regulator is so critical.
