“Is it a colour thing?” – Does the media represent black and white footballers differently?

On Sunday 2nd February 2025, Arsenal men’s beat reigning champions Manchester City 5-1 in the Premier League. It would be expected that the impressive result and performance from Arsenal, or perhaps the lacklustre performance and embarrassing result for Manchester City, would be the key talking points following the game. Rather, the main talking point from both the mainstream and social media was the antics of Arsenal’s young, black left-back, Myles Lewis-Skelly, who, after scoring his first senior goal, celebrated by copying Erling Haaland’s meditation celebration.

In the reverse fixture that occurred in September, shortly after throwing the ball at Gabriel Maghalaes’ head, Haaland said to Myles “Who are you?”, two antics that were seen as examples of Haaland’s bravado. However, Myles received a warning from TalkSport co-host Jason Cundy, saying that he shouldn’t taunt his rivals in case what Roy Keane did to Haaland’s father, Alf-Inge Haaland, which essentially ended his playing career, also happens to Myles.

In the League Cup semi-final first leg between Arsenal and Newcastle, in which Newcastle won 2-0, Anthony Gordon celebrated by leaning on the corner flag, a celebration which the Daily Mail reported as “rubbing salt in Arsenal’s wounds”. One of the arguments used against Lewis-Skelly is that because he’s young and has not won anything, he should be more respectful to a figure that has won near enough everything in club football.

This is his first season in senior football, so of course he has not won anything yet, but neither has soon-to-be 24-year-old Anthony Gordon, who has been playing professionally since 2017. However, when he copied Thierry Henry’s celebration, a player who has won everything in international and club football, the media resisted criticism. In light of Lewis-Skelly’s celebration, the Premier League is investigating the possibility of punishing goal celebrations if they are deemed critical or mocking. Interesting how this has come out in lieu of an 18-year-old’s first senior goal as opposed to Jamie Vardy when he celebrates like an eagle against Crystal Palace or Neal Maupay imitating James Maddison’s darts celebrations, two white footballers who are seen as ‘wind-up merchants’ and deemed funny.

Along similar lines, Phil Foden’s goal celebration is him imitating firing a gun, his reasoning being that he is nicknamed ‘The Sniper’, a harmless celebration that does not suggest any violence or danger, right? However, in build-up to the 2018 World Cup, many journalists such as Piers Morgan called Raheem Sterling’s decision to get a gun tattooed on his leg to be a “dumb decision” with justifications being that as he had a young Instagram following and there was a lot of gun and knife crime, Sterling should know better. Sterling’s reasoning for having the tattoo was that his dad was shot dead when he was two, swearing that he would never touch a gun. A deep and personal reason, something Foden did not have to provide, and yet not enough to satisfy the mainstream media, dominated by older whiter journalists.

Sterling and Lewis-Skelly are not the only young black footballers who the media have targeted. For example, Jude Bellingham commented on how he felt like the scapegoat for England’s failures at the Euros and faced calls to be benched. Similarly, Bukayo Saka was called to be benched in favour of Cole Palmer on many occasions and when England beat Switzerland in the quarter-finals, the attention was on his ‘redeeming’ penalty rather than his immaculate performance. This contrasts greatly with Foden- it is widely known that Phil Foden had a poor tournament, however, the common discussion was how Gareth Southgate could “get the best out of him” as opposed to blaming Foden. This excuse was not used for Bellingham or Saka’s performances.

To conclude, one must ask why the media treat and discuss young black footballers differently to white footballers. Why are there discussions about punishing players for celebrations when Lewis-Skelly does it but not Jamie Vardy? Why is it okay for Foden to imitate shooting a gun as a celebration but not okay for Sterling to have a gun tattooed on his leg because his dad was shot? Why is it the manager’s fault that certain players are playing badly, but it’s the player’s fault when it’s Saka and Bellingham?