For black female professional footballers, racism has become a distressingly regular part of the game. Earlier this year, England defender Jess Carter told the BBC that the racist abuse she received online during the 2025 Euros made her fearful to leave her hotel room.
Black sportswomen routinely deal with racial abuse from fans and teammates. But less discussed is how their bodies, emotions and on-pitch performances are spoken about by sports commentators. It’s not just negative comments, either. Clear racial stereotypes emerge when comparing positive comments about black players with those about white players. Our 2025 study examines commentary during the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup.
We analysed 2,905 comments used by commentators to praise and describe female footballers during 80 hours of coverage, across all 52 televised matches at the tournament. We found that white women were more frequently praised for their intelligence and technical proficiency, while black women received the most praise for their perceived physical prowess and natural athleticism.
White players were more frequently praised about skills learned through practice, comments to the effect of having a “lovely technique” (49.4% of all comments about white players), followed by physical (20.3%), character (16.2%), cognitive (10.8%) and natural (3.3%) abilities.
Black players received almost double the amount of praise for their physical prowess (39.5% of comments about black players) and natural abilities (5.8%). They received notably fewer praise comments for learned skills (36.8%), as well as lower amounts of praise for character (11.9%) and cognitive attributes (6.0%).
These differences were especially noticeable in coverage of national teams from white-majority countries that had more than two black players in their starting squad. England’s two non-white players (accounting for 18.2% of the team) received 50% of all of their team’s praise for natural attributes. These were comments praising qualities that were perceived to be innate, comments to the effect of being a “magician” on the pitch. England’s visibly white players (81.8% of the team) received almost the entire amount of the praise given to the whole team for cognitive attributes (96%).
France’s black players, who accounted for 43% of team, received 90% and 85% of the team’s total praise for natural and physical attributes, respectively. White French players, who similarly constituted 43% of the playing squad, received 68% of the teams’ total praise for intelligence.
We also found that black female players were more likely to be described as being angry and emotionally unstable during matches. Nigeria’s forward Desire Oparanozie was described as “playing with a bit of anger” and England’s Nikita Parris was said to be unable to maintain her composure, with a tendency to frequently “make her feelings known”. Their white teammates, on the other hand, were described as calm and composed.
Harmful stereotypes
Black women experience a unique form of discrimination that has been called misogynoir. It is different to the exclusions faced by white women and the racism experienced by black men. It is the result of a combination of the misogyny directed at their gender and the anti-black racism directed at their race.
Studies have shown that black sportswomen are frequently stereotyped as unfeminine, masculine and strong, lacking intelligence, emotionally unstable, inherently angry and overly aggressive. Conversely, white women are seen to embody Eurocentric beauty standards and accepted feminine ideals, such as notions of purity, grace, emotional stoicism and delicacy.
These stereotypes have real-life consequences for black sportswomen. Some footballers have gone so far as to change how they play. For example, ex-England player Anita Asante explained:
You have to check yourself to make sure people don’t view you in that light. Maybe on that particular day in a training session, I am that sassy person, or I am that competitive person that comes across a bit more feisty – but because there is an association with being a black woman and having that energy and boldness is not always seen a positive thing, I might refrain from being that person and contain more of my emotions.
Evidence shows that misogynoir can influence the career opportunities that are afforded to black women more generally. A recent US study connected racism to higher levels of stress and to higher mortality rates.
Unless broadcasters take action — supported by evaluative approaches such as the tallying methods used in this research — commentators may continue, albeit unintentionally, to reinforce racial stereotypes that contribute to psychological and physiological harm among the very athletes they celebrate.
April 20, correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to ITV as having provided some of the commentary during the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup. In fact the tournament was broadcast by the BBC. A BBC spokesperson told The Conversation: Since 2019, BBC Sport has developed and delivered an industry-wide course on inclusive commentary and language, attended by other major broadcasters. This covers detailed guidance on terminology, expressions and phrasing. We continue to broaden the diversity of our on-air team and remain committed to evolving our practices, so our coverage is inclusive and reflects the sports we showcase and the audiences we serve. Ahead of this year’s World Cup, all commentators will again receive clear guidance and briefings on language and inclusivity.