Let’s Kick Racism Out Of Football Commentators
Some incredibly colourful Ghanaian fans, seen here in marked contrast to their dull, monochrome and singularly uncolourful American counterparts who aren't colourful at all.
The curtain finally came down on the first ever African World Cup last night, bringing to a close four weeks of thrills, spills and, more memorable yet, the steady deluge of thinly-veiled racist stereotyping by commentators the English-speaking world over.
Anyone who is familiar with BBC’s coverage of the African Cup of Nations will have had fair warning of what would await the world’s TV audiences in South Africa. Veterans of the biennial African tournament were braced for repeated references to the ‘colour’, ‘passion’ and ‘hunger’ of the native fans, hampered by their ‘tactical naivete’, ‘erratic goalkeeping’ and ‘explosive temperament’. Needless to say, they didn’t disappoint.
BBC performed their usual baffling stunt of bringing in a black ex-player as a guest studio analyst to supposedly provide some sort of inside track on how football is played in Africa, despite said player having absolutely no affiliation with Africa, other than some distant ancestral lineage. Just as five-times England cap John Salako was wheeled out to give his thoughts on the African Cup of Nations in 2005, so was Clarence Seedorf, former Netherlands international and native of Surinam, a Dutch colony located towards the northern tip of South America, unveiled as the Beeb’s resident ‘non-Caucasian’ face. A more misguided sop to tokenism you couldn’t script.
The true anachronistic highlights, however, were to come from the commentators. First and foremost, it became quickly apparent that African fans and players would have exclusive rights to the term ‘colourful’ over the course of the tournament. The opening ceremony was, according to Jonathan Stevenson of BBC Sport, “the most colourful opening ceremony of all time”. Alan Shearer (BBC) felt that Cameroon would ‘bring a certain colour’ to the tournament, while Martin Tyler (ESPN), Graham Taylor (5 Live) and serial offender Clive Tyldsley (ITV) never missed an opportunity to extol the colour of the African contingent.Now, you might well ask, what’s the big problem with this? Aren’t African fans crazy about their football, and appear in all manner of vibrantly shaded costumes to the matches? The answer is yes, indeed they do. But look at the zany, spiky-haired Germans and the loud, body-painting English fans: do we ever hear commentators and pundits waxing lyrical about the ‘colourful’ supporters of these countries? The short answer is we don’t, and it’s not because their white strip isn’t considered colourful enough. Just look at Ghana, whose dramatic journey through to the quarter finals was regrettable only from the point of view of the extended opportunities it gave Clive Tyldsley and his ilk to continue to refer to their fans as ‘extraordinarily colourful’. Ghana, much like England and Germany, play in white. Ghana, unlike England and Germany, boast an overwhelmingly black fanbase. And it’s Ghana who are the ‘colourful’ ones. Skin colour dictating an ITV commentator’s choice of adjective? Never…
Clive Tyldesley
Of course, it wasn’t only the Africans who Clive and his colleagues had in their sights: South Korea paid for their audacity in reaching the last 16 with a barrage of borderline racist drivel from all quarters. “Park Ji-Sung”, Clive Tyldsley remarked breathlessly, “South Korea’s scampering pin-up boy”. Not to be outdone, ex-Middlesborough grafter Robbie Mustoe delved deep into his reservoir of Asian industry/obedience/thrift-related stereotypes and came up with a toe-curling tribute to the Koreans’ ‘economy of effort’ and ‘great work ethic’. Standing head and shoulders over his fellow stereotype-merchants, however, was the patroniser-in-chief, Martin Tyler of ESPN, who trumpeted out an utterly shameless reflection that the Koreans were ‘much smaller and nippier than the Greeks’. Words fail.
England fans: not colourful
For many, up until the semi-finals at least, this World Cup did not belong to Africa but to South America, with Paraguay, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina all emerging from their groups at the expense of more established European powers. Cue an utter collapse in political correctness as the diaspora of English commentators from ITV to ESPN weighed in with a wretched litany of Amazon references. Once more, Clive Tyldsley provided some of the more memorable efforts, going into overdrive at the all South American encounter of Brazil v Chile. Juan’s powerful header from a corner put Brazil in front, spurring Clive to remark that, despite being created and executed by the Brazilian artisans of the game, it was in fact ‘a British goal’. Forgetting for a moment that the only British team in the tournament had crashed out the day before having laboured their way to just three goals (scoring only one with the head), this was a staggering statement. The old corner-kick-to-the-head-of-a-centre-half trick has, unbeknownst to itself, become as quintessentially British as a pint of bitter and a Yorkshire pud, it seems. Pick all the Brazilians you like, but if you score a header from a corner, you’re as British as can be son. Perhaps thinking better of attributing British traits to the seleção, Clive moved to repair the damage and pay fair tribute to the Copa America champions as they coasted to a 3-0 victory. “Brazil”, he announced to the millions about to switch over from ITV to somewhere a little less reliant on outrageous ethnic stereotyping, “are the kings of the South American jungle”. Yikes.
German fans: not colourful
This was, ultimately, Africa’s World Cup, and hopes had been high going into the tournament that the likes of Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o and Obafemi Martins would be inspired by this momentous occasion for African football and deliver on their undoubted ability. With the big guns unable to fire and all but one of the continent’s sides crashing out at the group stages, however, it fell to a youthful Ghana side, shorn of the injured Michael Essien, to carry African hopes. As the knockout stages loomed, George Hamilton of RTÉ commented with a customary insight matched only by a propensity for queasy puns, that “the locals have all switched from South Africa to Ghana. Instead of Bafana Bafana, it’s BaGhana BaGhana”. Despite coming through an extremely tricky group of Germany, Serbia and Australia, and doing what England couldn’t in beating a determined USA side to set up a quarter final tie, Martin Tyler still felt that the Ghanaians still weren’t really all that bothered about this whole winner-takes-all lark: “these Ghanaian fans don’t care if they win or lose because they’ll be having a massive party either way”. I’d have paid good money to see the reaction that comment would get from Asamoah Gyan after their penalty shoot-out defeat to Uruguay.
For all the imperialist-hungover fulminations of Clive Tyldsley, the racism-lite of Martin Tyler, and the general muttonheaded buffoonery displayed by the various stiff Northern European analysts trying to pass polite comment on a culture that was so defiantly and discomfitingly exuberant, it was none other than ex-England manager-turned-Radio 5 Live analyst Graham ‘Turnip’ Taylor, who provided the most unapologetic summary of them all: “they’re very colourful, these Ghanaians”.
Do I not like that.
Native Mind 
The overlooked gem of this clip is in the last ten seconds.
I wonder what that certain colour is…
Indeed – the last 10 seconds aptly sum up the whole sorry situation! I’d also like to know what Lineker is referring to when he refers to Shearer being irrepressible ‘last night’. The two former England strikers appear to be sharing a saucy moment, while Adebayor ever-so-subtly struggles to keep his phone out of sight, much like I have done many a time in lectures. Gold.
Great article mate – i’m positively green with envy, though not as green as you. No doubt you’ll be celebrating writing such a great post with a party, which might include some drinking. Anyway –
The only (roast) beef I have with this is when, in your intro, you seem to criticise Tyldesley et al for naively referring to ‘erratic goalkeeping’ in regard to African football. Now, Africans aren’t necessarily colourful, they may not like a party, and they do most definitely care whether they win or lose – but all African goalkeepers do, in fact, seem to be rubbish. Even the Nigerian guy Onyema, who looked good at first, turned out to be rubbish. Please prove me wrong with a name other than that of Jacques Songo’o.
Ej mand, tak skal du have: my eyes were smiling to read such kind remarks.
As for the African goalkeepers, I know they’re not the best in the world. They’ve produced greats (greets!) in just about every other position – Weah, Drogba, Kuffour, Mensah, Essien, Abedi Pele, Okocha – but still no goalkeeper. I think this is why they get such a pummeling in the stereotype stakes as opposed to say, er, England, whose ‘keepers seem to keep committing howlers – but they don’t get tarred with the same brush because they’ve got a history to fall back on: Banks, Clemence, Shilton.
But I do think progress was made in this World Cup. Enyeamu produced the best individual goalkeeping performance of the tournament (possibly only bettered by Casillas in the final, at a stretch) against Argentina, and despite making that mistake against Greece, he was in most people’s Team Of The Tournament for the first two weeks. Which is big progress.
As regards bucking the stereotypes, I thought one of the big stars of the Ghanaian side that reached the quarters was Richard Kingson – Wigan’s 4th choice and Ghana’s first! He made some outstanding saves, was consistently reliable under crosses, kept one clean sheet and never conceded more than a goal per game. More importantly, he wore shorts instead of tracksuit bottoms – which is a major step forward out of Stereotypeville for an African goalkeeper. The 2002 (Kahn) and 2006 (Buffon) World Cups were defined by on-form goalkeepers – this one wasn’t to the same extent, but if I was to pick a squad from the top performers of SA 2010, Casillas and Kingson would be duking it out for the number 1 jersey.
Hmmm…Kingson never filled me with confidence. He frequently looked absolutely terrified. The Algerian second choice guy actually looked quality in the two games he played (not that England tested him much). I completely take your point about English keepers, but the media here are (for once) fairly honest and open about the fact we’ve not had a reliable keeper in nets since France 98. Still yet to see an African goalie who you’d be confident could hold down a place in one of the top European sides. Barry Glendenning covered the African Cup of Nations for the Guardian, and described all the keepers at that tournament with my word of the moment: “rubbish”. Hope that changes soon – maybe Bruce Grobelaar will set up a goalkeeping academy in Harare and all will be well.
Have you considered including a few social bookmarking buttons to these sites. At least for facebook.
Thanks for visiting the blog! I have had social bookmarking buttons at the foot of all my posts for a long time now – are they showing up ok on your browser? I’ve buttons for Facebook, Twitter and email (and print) at the bottom of each post. Feel free to share them around, the more that read and comment the merrier!
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something.
I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message
home a little bit, but other than that, this is fantastic blog.
A great read. I will certainly be back.