Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – Jen Beattie & Antoine Griezmann
Every Monday we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.
HIT – JEN BEATTIE
Everyone in football was shocked to hear that Scotland and Arsenal defender Jen Beattie has been receiving treatment for breast cancer.
Beattie was diagnosed in October but has continued to play for her club and country and says the support of her teammates has been crucial while she’s unable to be with family due to coronavirus restrictions.
The 29-year-old says her aim now is to raise awareness of having breast cancer at a young age and encourage women to get checked.
"I know people are maybe scared to go to the hospital and scared to get checked out because of COVID, but there are still ways to do it," Beattie said in an interview with BBC’s Football Focus.
"I have friends who work in the NHS and they've said diagnoses have gone down massively for cancer this year, and that scares me so much, knowing that people are sitting at home and can maybe feel things but are too scared to go in.
"Whether you're 29 or 79, it doesn't really matter and you might have to deal with it at some point.
"Even if it is still a horrible process to go through, it can be a much better ending if you just go and get checked."
Arsenal and Manchester City players showed their support for Beattie by wearing shirts with her name on ahead of their crucial Women’s Super League clash.
Arsenal’s club twitter account commented ‘You’re an inspiration to all of us’ and the outpouring of well wishes has underlined how football can come together and unite in difficult times.
Beattie has shown immense courage to tell her story and raise awareness for such an important topic when it may have been easier to keep it to herself and we wish her all the best in her recovery.
MISS – ANTOINE GRIEZMANN
What does it mean to be a brand ambassador?
In days gone by, it meant standing with a product or wearing a cap emblazoned with a brand’s logo and smiling for photographs.
But consumers demand a lot more from the brands they buy and support these days, expecting them to have a social conscience as well as be of good quality.
Antoine Griezmann, the Barcelona and France striker, used Instagram to make a statement declaring that he was severing ties with Chinese electronics brand Huawei due to their alleged involvement in China’s treatment of Muslim Uighurs.
China has been criticised by global governments and other sports stars including Mesut Ozil and Sonny Bill Williams with up to a million Uighurs suspected to be in ‘re-education camps.’
The Chinese government has consistently denied mistreatment and says the camps are designed to stamp out terrorism and improve employment opportunities.
“Following strong suspicions that Huawei has contributed to the development of a Uighur alert thanks to facial recognition software, I am announcing the immediate termination of my partnership with the company," Griezmann said in an Instagram post.
“I take this opportunity to invite Huawei to not just deny these accusations but to take concrete actions as quickly as possible to condemn this mass repression, and to use its influence to contribute to the respect of human and women's rights in society.”
Given that Griezmann has been a Huawei ambassador since 2017, his statement does beg the question why there were no discussions between him or his representatives and Huawei before he cut ties.
Rather than just highlighting his concerns as he resigned, he could perhaps have had a greater impact by announcing that he wanted to work with Huawei to ensure that the Uighurs plight was addressed.
As it was, Huawei issued their own statement in which they said: “We would like to extend an invitation to speak to him personally, to explain the work that is currently being done at the highest level, inside the company, to address the issues of human rights, equality, and discrimination at all levels, and to reassure him, and all our customers and partners, that Huawei takes these concerns very seriously.”
Whether or not Huawei could or would have done anything is open to debate and conjecture, but if Griezmann had attempted to work with them to make a positive change for the Uighers, imagine how much more impactful that would have been both for the player and the company?