Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – The FSA & Kenny Shiels
Every week we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.
HIT - THE FSA
The Islamic holy month of Ramadan is underway, with many Muslims, including professional footballers, abstaining from food and drink in daylight hours until Sunday May 1.
The Football Supporters’ Association’s (FSA) Fans for Diversity campaign is working again to raise awareness around Ramadan in football and provide practical support to players fasting throughout the course of the month.
In collaboration with Nujum Sports – a not-for-profit organisation that helps professional athletes through Ramadan – the FSA have been distributing Ramadan packs to over 200 Muslim players at 72 professional clubs.
The packs contain essentials including honey, prayer beads, prayer mats, and advice sheets.
Anwar Uddin, head of the Fans for Diversity campaign, said: “We’ve been supporting Nujam Sports with the packs since day one and it’s developed into a great initiative.
“It goes beyond the practical support now, they’re now able to give advice and guidance to clubs, staff, players and supporters on Ramadan – even coming up with a charter.”
“The feedback we’ve had on the project has been excellent. The need for this work is growing all the time, I’m proud the FSA has gone with them on this journey.”
He continued: “With the amount of Muslim players playing in the Premier League we will see more of this. During their fast, players can’t eat or drink. That’s an immense physical challenge.
“It’s important that supporters show solidarity with their players going through it.
“We had Karim Benzema score a hat-trick in the Champions League this week after fasting all day. To do that at the elite level is no mean feat.”
Nujum Sports have also been delivering workshops and education sessions to help clubs improve the support they offer Muslim players during Ramadan.
Notably, there have also been supporter-led equivalents arising, including the Cambridge United fan group, Cambridge Fans United (CFU), who used the Nujum Sports Ramadan packs to introduce themselves to the city’s newly-built mosque and growing Muslim community.
The Fans for Diversity campaign is leading the way in educating others about the challenges of fasting, and is helping to build relationships between match-going fans and minority communities.
The FSA and Nujum Sports should be applauded for building hope that this kind of support can be replicated elsewhere throughout sport.
MISS – KENNY SHIELS
Prejudice towards women’s football sadly remains ubiquitous among swathes of fans, players, and coaches of the game.
Comments made recently by Northern Ireland women's boss Kenny Shiels about the emotional impulses of men compared to women in international sport recently highlighted the continuous bigotry that still exists towards women in sport.
Shiels, 65, a greatly experienced coach, was praised this time last year after he led Northern Ireland to this summer's Euros – the country's first major women's international tournament.
Only 12 months on, the Northern Ireland manager blamed his ‘emotional’ female side for conceding a handful of goals in quick succession following their heavy 5-0 defeat to England in Women’s World Cup qualification.
During his post-match media duties, he noted: “In the women’s game, I’ve noticed, as I’m sure you’re aware, if you go through the patterns, when a team concedes a goal they concede a second one in a very very short period of time, right through the whole spectrum of the women’s game, because girls and women are more emotional than men, so they take a goal going in not very well.”
Shiels’ Northern Ireland defence had been beaten three times in nine minutes against Austria days before shipping four in 27 minutes in the second half against the Lionesses.
He then continued: “When we went 1-0 down, we killed the game, tried to just slow it right down to give them time to get the emotional imbalance out of their head.”
The 65-year-old’s casual sexism tarnished a historic night for women’s football at Park in Belfast with a record crowd of 15,348 fans flocking through the turnstiles to watch the contest which saw England book themselves at least a playoff place for next summer’s tournament.
Ian Wright was one of many notable footballing figures to take umbrage with Shiels’ interview, tweeting: "Kenny Shiels talking foolishness! Talking about emotional women! Didn't that man see how many times I was crying on the PITCH!"
Former England goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain was another, telling BBC Radio 5 Live: “We all know – and we get it drilled into us as footballers – the five minutes after you concede a goal, the five minutes after you score a goal across the board, not just in women’s football, in men’s football as well, you’re more likely to concede a goal, you’re more likely to potentially go on to score again.
“That’s not just in the women’s game, that’s in the men’s game as well and to just generalise that to women is a slightly bizarre comment.
“You need to kind of take a bit of responsibility of knowing the value that words can hold and when you give post-match press conferences when you’re feeling emotional after a big game, it’s important to make sure that you’re speaking sensibly and are aware of the message that your words can carry.”
Shiels later apologised in a statement, which read: “I wish to apologise for my comments made in the post-match press conference last night. I am sorry for the offence that they have caused.
“Last night was a special occasion for the women’s game in Northern Ireland and I am proud to manage a group of players who are role models for so many girls, and boys, across the country.
“I am an advocate for the women’s game and passionate about developing opportunities for women and girls to flourish.”
However, despite his apology, Sheils had ended his initial press conference by noting “I shouldn’t have told you that”, which suggests that he was only sorry for making his comments out loud, not believing in them.
While there may be more goals in quick succession in women’s football matches, Shiels failed to recognise the fact that this is because women’s games on average are higher scoring than men’s – meaning statistically goals will unavoidably be bunched closer together.
Women’s football is finally getting the exposure and recognition it deserves and Shiels’ uneducated commentary was not only wrong, but it enforced lazy stereotypes about women’s sport.
Simply put, an experienced manager of a women’s national team should know better than to feed into the archaic narrative that women are too emotional for the high stakes of competitive international sport.