Sport facing familiar diversity and inclusion problems as ‘fence-sitters’ urged to act
Sports reporting continues to suffer from a lack of inclusion – despite the explosion of diversity officers across the board over the past five years.
The issue was discussed at the second Include Summit, which took place in Manchester last week. During the two-day conference, leaders from a range of media and sporting organizations welcomed the students and addressed areas for improvement – including language and more senior-level representation.
Include Summit co-founder Jamie Hooper told the conference, “We’ve seen an explosion of EDI leads in various esports organizations and organizations involved in this esports space over the past few years. I feel like we’re not seeing this explosion of progress to the extent that we’re seeing people taking on these roles.”
Added Michelle Daltry, Head of Sport at Inclusive Employers: “EDI leads in pro sports, NGBs and active partnerships are doing amazing work and there is progress. The expectation is that we want to see a lot more of it and at a greater pace, and for that to happen it has to become everyone’s role.”
Speaking live on the D&I Spy podcast for Reach Plc, Daily Mirror Assistant Editor Darren Lewis said: “For example, sport is struggling with straight white women covering the game.
“It’s always fought with black men and women, it’s always fought with Asian women. Disability and LGBTQ+ were never on the radar as society didn’t accept anything that deviated from the norm.
“When I saw a racist incident in football, the next day you picked up a newspaper it was like it never happened. I could describe many of the subjects covered, and a white journalist could do the same, and I would not be seen.
“The difference between then and now is that we are in an area where we can do something about it. Something like that [summit] when I started was unthinkable because the interest just wasn’t there.”
Organizations present at the event included Reach PLC, Daily Mirror, Premier League, TalkSport, Sky Sports, BBC Sport, disability action group Why Can’t We, Professional Cricket Association, Basketball England, Rugby Football Union, Women In Football, Anti-racism campaigners Kick It Out, Liverpool FC and Manchester United.
Tony Burnett, CEO of anti-racism activists Kick It Out, urged sports and media organizations not to leave the responsibility solely to education, diversity and inclusion managers to make changes themselves.
He said: “What we’re fighting for is trying to ingrain the right things, behaviors and levels of trust in organizations because EDI shouldn’t rely on passionate individuals delivering it, it should be what organizations do.”
Miriam Walker-Khan, diversity and inclusion reporter at Sky Sports, formerly BBC, said: “There is a lack of diversity in leadership positions. What happened to me was that I was taken to meetings the day after an incident involving racism in sport. It’s like that every day in these organizations.
“It can be really exhausting. It’s just about respecting people and listening to them and making sure everyone is heard equally.”
Burnett has previously spoken to the Mirror about the current state of affairs for underrepresented groups in football. Initiatives currently underway include requiring Premier League clubs to meet specific workforce diversity targets, which recent studies show is gradually improving.
“I’ve definitely seen progress,” said Rishi Jain, senior manager for EDI at Liverpool FC. “Probably in the sports sector we are very good at telling the story within the sports sector, but does that carry over to the big companies as well?
“Obviously when we’re looking for absolute best practice in Liverpool we look to other clubs and think, ‘What are they doing?’ So many Premier League clubs I speak to are doing incredible work in their own communities but it’s quite similar to what we do.
“What we really want to do is be like the big companies like Google and say, ‘This is how we’re going to do it.'”
Jain added: “That’s where we’re struggling in the sports industry – is sport getting broadcast to the wider media and people really understand that as a football club we are a lot more than the 11 players you see on the pitch and the see manager?”
Burnout was one of the main issues raised by EDI practitioners, with those working in the sphere finding their constant efforts to bring about change – only with slow progress – to be particularly frustrating but also exhausting.
Walker-Khan added: “If you don’t really make an effort to bring in people like this or genuine allies who can tell these stories properly, there’s no point. We will not solve this problem overnight. That’s how you use people in those roles to make things better.”
So how do those on the front lines of fighting EDI imbalances fare? And how can industry promote progress?
Catherine Duncan, Training and Development Manager at World Sailing, said: “From our side, it’s about challenging the structures behind things and the people making those decisions and trying to embed diversity in those committees and boards so that we can filter our decisions down into the associations they work in so that they are empowered to push it too.”
Media coverage of underrepresented groups has been a major topic of discussion – something England footballer Raheem Sterling has previously spoken out against. Peter Harding, founder of Why Can’t We, suggested that Paralympic athletes are not getting fair coverage outside of the Paralympic Games and major competitions.
“We need to get away from this narrative that it’s either inspiring or they’re not good enough,” Harding said. “We don’t talk enough about how to get people to take action and celebrate success appropriately.”
Reach Plc has made an ongoing commitment to diversifying its workforce while striving to provide more mainstream coverage to less represented groups. This approach led to the creation of our new female-led team dedicated to reporting on women’s football last year.
Lewis added: “We are in a new world. We’re here for people to tell us how we can get better. If we can learn from that, we will be sitting here next year and talking about that success.”
A clear conclusion of the summit is the opportunity for future generations to break down barriers and facilitate continuous change in the years and generations to come. Dozens of local students were granted free access to the Include Summit to give them a glimpse of the opportunities and avenues available to them.
Julie Robbins, Head of Inclusion and Diversity at the Youth Sport Trust, said: “It’s about how we develop an inclusive culture. I always think the word inclusion gets used a lot but for me the least invested is because we want to make sure people feel safe and welcome, they feel like they belong, they are respected, they are valued.
“We cannot and should not just pigeonhole people, but those same people must also have the confidence and space to speak out about the issues that affect them. We need an ongoing dialogue, whether it’s about LGBTQ+, racing in sport or women in sport.
“It’s really important that we always invest in the future, including leaders for the next generation. It is important that young people are included in this conversation. We all have a responsibility here to really think about the coming next generation and make sure they participate in this conversation because then we don’t need the EDI leads to drive inclusion because our leaders will actually champion it themselves .”
Include Summit co-founder Hooper has insisted now is the time to grab the nettle and challenge outdated perceptions and norms — with fear of slipping no longer being a valid excuse.
“We’re in a climate now where sitting on a fence isn’t doing anyone any good,” he said. “We have to be more proactive about having opinions, being able to talk about these things, being out there and being vulnerable because we’re nervous about saying the wrong thing.
“I understand, but you have to find a way, otherwise we won’t make any progress. Nobody wins in such situations.”
The sport still has some work to do to address the EDI issues it has had on its heart for too long, but at least the discussion is moving in the right direction.