Arsenal Women

https://twitter.com/skysportsnews/status/1716397427387715768?s=46&t=LlMNFvsPPy2ozwuX8FhQrA

I thought it was based on how good you are at football?

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I mean it is, but the article raised some concerns about the barriers to entry for little girls or young women of color.

We’ve been having this debate for like 20, 30 years in the US. Maybe longer, actually. It’s obviously supposed to be a meritocracy but if the pool of players is restricted to people who can afford to participate it’s an issue.

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True, but I don’t think you need to make a statement just because you played a game with no black women in your team.

Both our men’s and women’s team have been very diverse over the years.

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Being a pro footballer as a Women is just basically not a viable career path for the vast vast majority. Unless you’re Sam Kerr or Viv or similar you’re probably not even looking at being comfortable in retirement after a 20 year career. So therefore most drop out, there is no easy way to solve that.

I think the statement from Arsenal nearly went without saying to be honest. Zero doubt (and history proves it) that if the player is good enough the rest certainly wont matter to this club or our fans.

Whatever Arsenal do they get criticism. Mens team used to get criticised for having too many foreigners, now the women’s team which has historically had plenty of black and asian players who helped us win the top trophies, happens not to have one this season and they have to release a statement? This world makes me laugh these days its insane.

Should we have forced Iwabuchi not to retire and keep her in the team to have a non-white player? Or send Gio on a long holiday so she’s tanned enough to count? We have women representing from across the globe, their skin colour shouldn’t matter.

“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.”

This is great but pretty sure they were already doing that across the whole club and shouldn’t have to even make a comment.

tbh I think that’s exactly why Arsenal made the statement.

If it was in response to a twitter reaction from the photo Arsenal didn’t need to dignify them with a response tbh.

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Was definitely in response to the Twitter furore.

It is a little concerning though that AFC doesn’t have a single non-white female player in the team. That’s not to say that I think we should have quotas or anything stupid like that. But it’s clear there is something happening at recruitment level or more likely… at grassroots that’s preventing underrepresented groups from accessing the game.

Same applies for managers in all the divisions in this country. Something’s not right.

This isn’t strictly an Arsenal problem though, it’s a footballing & society problem.

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Chelsea beat Villa 0-6

Early lead vs Man City

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Quite the error from the Man City goalkeeper

Arsenal win 2-1

Tottenham 2nd in both leagues :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

you know something dodgy is going on when those worthless scrubs are reaching these dizzying heights.

Got tickets for the Chelsea game at the Emirates. Looking forward to it now and because it’s an early kick off im gonna do a day trip. So I’ll probably be half dead the monday morning :slight_smile:

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Luckily government employees generally phone it in the first half of Monday and the second half of Friday anyway. Or maybe that’s just me.

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Playing Leicester later today and it’s on Sky Sports, for those interested.

A win puts us second

Could do with a McCabe banger before half time here

2-1!