One of the main tasks of football commentators is to classify what is happening on the pitch for the TV viewers: sometimes critical, sometimes praising, always as objectively as possible. A study by the Danish research company RunRepeat in collaboration with the English players ‘union PFA suggests that they often fail at the last point and that the commentators’ assessments even show racist tendencies.
The study examined 2,073 statements by English-speaking commentators in 80 games in England, Spain, Italy and France. The result of the study: players with light skin tones are more praised for their intelligence, work ethic and quality by commentators, while players with darker skin tones are reduced to their physical and athletic attributes. The American, Canadian, and English commentators examined criticized 63.33 percent of non-white players when speaking about player intelligence. On the other hand, 62.6 percent of the praise expressed for intelligence went to white professionals.
Praise especially for the white players
A similar picture emerges when looking at the quality of the players: While 67.57 percent of the criticism was directed at dark-skinned players, white players received 62.79 percent of the praise. There are also clear differences in the assessment of the work ethic of individual player groups. The commentators directed 60.4 percent of their praise to white players. In addition, non-white professionals are more restricted to their physical characteristics and athletic skills.
When commenting on a player’s power, the commentators are more than 6.5 times more likely to talk about players with darker skin tones. When it comes to speed, they are almost 3.5 times more likely to talk about non-white players. These facts are also reflected in the versatility criterion. While 73.53 percent of the criticism in this regard is aimed at dark-skinned players, 65.79 percent of the praised goes to white players.
The author of the study offers an explanation for the observations. According to “Zeit Online”, the latter said that less than eight percent of the commentators examined were classified as people with darker skin tones. “If they were more diverse, I would expect less drastic results,” it says. And: “The commentators function more as a kind of instrument through which we examine the language,” author Danny McLoughlin is quoted as saying: “But I have the feeling that if you generally analyze the reporting, guests in the studio at half-time or even Twitter , we would see the same thing. I think we could all do better. “
