Underrepresented Groups In Football

The purpose of this essay is to look at the different under-represented groups within football and discuss the barriers these groups will face in participation in football. Underrepresentation is defined as “To state or imply as being lower in quantity, quality, or degree than is actually the case” (Thefreedictionary, 2016). These groups can be from the elite level of football all the way down to grassroots level, all participants in sport will have at some point faced a barrier that will have affected their participation within the sport, To some these barriers can be overcome and they will continue participating, But to others they may lead to a person or a group to stop participating in football. The FA who are the main governing body of

“Cultural traditions have been identified as one of the main barriers causing low participation in sporting activities amongst people from ethnic minority communities” (Chandra, 2004, p. 203) Britain is a multicultural nation, meaning in the game of football there is be many different players of many different cultures some cultures may not affect participation but another will. An example of this is Ramadan, Muslims will fast during Ramadan meaning they will only eat and drink after sunset. This will affect participation in football for Muslims as it will mean during this month they will be unable to play football due to the demands on the body of football and fasting at the same time. Another reason why they are not as many ethnic minorities in football is racism. "Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior" (Oxford dictionary, 2016) Racism in football is still seen as a problem as there are many reports of it happening at games in all levels of football from the elite game to grassroots, an example of racism in the elite game is when John terry who at the time of the incident was the England captain directed a racial slur to QPR player Aton Ferdinand, As a punishment Terry was stripped of his captaincy, Banned for 4 games and fined £220,000. To many people, this was unfair, and not appropriate that Terry got off with being racist with little repercussions. Incidents like this will affect participation in football as in the lower levels of football where racism may be more likely to happen, Player of an ethnic minority may not want to get involved with the game as to some the punishments for incidents like this are little if at all. Why would a player of an ethnic minority want to play football if they are the chance of being racially abused with little repercussions for the player being