Why is this article called Clark Carlisle?

it is strange. in youth football i played against lads who are now professionals and some really good Indian lads. there was no difference ability wise yet there are no Indian football players in the premier league.

Better TSL?

Let me make this clear though, i said i was indian to highlight my asian origins, but i have seen, muslim, sikh, bengali lads all suffer disapointment, and not because they are not talented, but if not, then why?

Culture thing I suspect. They are pushed towards academia more than sport/entertainment.

In this day and age I very much doubt that this is to do with racism, particuarly with the London/Manc/Birmingham clubs.

Culture thing I suspect. They are pushed towards academia more than sport/entertainment.
----------------------------------------------------------------

I disagree with that, because 20 years ago, maybe, but no its aopen playing field, most parents of this new generation are of a modern thinking and i dont see that it is a push towards academia.

Why is it that cricket is accepted with asians but not football?

most parents of this new generation are of a modern thinking and i dont see that it is a push towards academia.
___________________________

Asian children in general are pushed towards academia though. I dont mean that their parents intentionally pull them away from sport, but when you are so focused on studies then it just ends up happening.

Another thing, parents of "this new generation" as you put it are still relatively young, and so have young children. Give it a few years and I reckon we'll see a few break through.

BloodRed makes a good point..

I just dont think Asians pursue it enough, if they are good enough. You have to enrol in the footballing coaching schools, academies etc and then you'd get noticed by scouts. Maybe I'm wrong but culture does play a part in this.

Maybe they're just not good enough.

Or maybe there is an actual problem with indians pakistanis, getting into the elite level of football.

cricket is hugely popular in India and Pakistan. some of the greatest players ever seen have hailed from said countries.

i would imagine that many young lads from India and Pakistan ( in particular ) would dream to aspire to their cricketing heroes.

football is not such a big deal to them.

Bloodred
----------------------------

Agree with your sentiments but havent we been waiting a lifetime to see this break through?

I mean as a side note, John Barnes once sacked waited 8 years for his next job, why?

I don't think there is any genetic reason why south Asian people can't be great footballers. Like carrickature, as a teenager I played with a few of Asian (mainly Pakistani) kids, some of whom were very talented.

So that leaves two possible explanations - failure to spot and recruit talent at one end and/or cultural resistance and lack of ambition at the other. Personally, I suspect it is more the latter. Would a professional club like e.g. Manchester United be governed by racial presumptions to the extent that they wouldn't believe in the potential of a young Indian footballer who was performing brilliantly in front of scouts? Maybe 30 years ago. But today I don't think so. We have a lot of racial diversity in the game, not just black players who might be stereotyped as big strong athletes, but east Asian players and South Americans with primarily native American background - neither of which ethnic groups are typically tall and powerful (and of course diminutive Spanish players are dominating world football at the moment). Clubs would have to be stupid to ignore a ready source of players. I don't think clubs in this day of hyper-professionalism are ruled by outdated stereotypes. Moreover, I'm sure they can see commercial advantages to having Indian posterboys at their clubs: whichever club gets the Indian David Beckham (or the footballing Sachin Tendulkar) is going to reap massive rewards off the field.

So it seems to me it must be more of a cultural barrier: south Asian kids not aspiring to be professional footballers, their families not approving, a lack of figures to look up to and encourage others they too can make it. I can't claim to know anything about this from the inside though and it would be interesting to hear from anyone who does.

If you look at how many people make it in pro football, whatever their colour you would see that it's a very small percentage of the population. Then look at the percentage of Asians compared to non Asian in this country and you'll see the number is even less of that original percentage.

I'm sure as numbers of Asians in the country grow there will be more Asian footballers but just give it time. I'm sure there are racist people in the football establishment as in all walks of life. The thing that worries me most about Clarke Carlisle is that he wants quotas brought in.
If that happens it really will be one of the worst things to happen to football in this country.

Kick My Shinji,

It highlighted a number of things, but more so the lack of Asians in our game. Being Indian myself, I've never had aspirations to be a famous footballer but I have seen first hand a number of very talented friends that have not been given trials or given the chance?

==========================

No football club is going to cut its nose off by missing out on an Asian player.....simply because they're Asian - that is ridiculous in my book.

I know, and played with, some very talented kids of all races that didnt get trials, or were told they had no future in football. Gary Lineker was told by Leicester if he didnt beef up, they would let him go. And Gazza was turned away at school boy level saying he wasnt good enough.

All this racist lark gets on my nerves.

Carlisle should think about doing morally things right himself, like getting a cab home after getting pi££ed, rather than getting in his car & driving it, rather than jumping on a bandwagon just to raise his own profile.

He gets right on my nerves as well.

Would it be wrong of me to say that there's some form of racism in all types of industries and that it will always remain that way.?

i have worked along side many Asian people in my time, and cricket seemed to be the one over riding passion with them, football was secondary at best. most of the lads i knew were not interested in footy, but all either played cricket or were extremely knowledgable about the sport (or both )

Thats what I said earlier that part of the reason could be that they dont pursue it enough.

At my school there were about 4 black/white kids who were in the acadamies of PL/Championship clubs. There were also a couple of Asians who were easily more talented than them but just didnt pursue it. There is the problem - its nothing to do with racism anymore.

funrob - Carrickschin

The thing that worries me most about Clarke Carlisle is that he wants quotas brought in.
If that happens it really will be one of the worst things to happen to football in this country.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Completely agree mate! You should be picked solely on ability but what I struggle to comprehend is a country which boasts a lot of ethnicities/cultures/backgrounds, has NO Asian players in the game? Are they all not talented enough?

One interesting this was, when he was speaking to the Asian lads from Luton, one was cut short through injury, but one was captain of his county team, and had been captain of any team he had played in. Now the fact that 99.9% of players playing at county level are usually signed up to a club or on the verge of, how is a capatin of the county not signed up? His roots?

Just a thought

BTW - I don't believe there's a racial issue here, just as it may be perceived that way. But more so interested in peoples views.

There will always be racism. I would never be racist myself but as long as people have their own minds then there will always be racist people. The only way forward is education.
I think if football really was racist then there wouldn't be as many black players. I don't think racist people pick and choose who they hate.
Clarke Carlisle is just being 'that' guy. Idiot.

Kick My Shinji

I'm sure there is racism in football. But I don't think we can list very distinct things like racial abuse among players, the question of black managers and that of Asian players and say they are all part of a single issue.

Players' behaviour it seems to me reflects general problems and attitudes in society, just magnified because footballers are in general more visible, have a sense of self-importance and, sadly, tend to be thick.

Black managers getting chances is a very different issue. Perhaps there are stereotypes working against them. I guess some chairmen are more enlightened than others.

Asian players again relates to a different set of contexts.

By the way, you can't justify a sweeping conclusion based on relatively small bits of evidence. John Barnes didn't work for a few years because he was black or because he was a repeated failure wherever he went? Maybe the fact that he got several high profile jobs despite his failures undermine the proposition that racism was at work. And your friends - I'm sure they were very talented, but the competition is fierce at the top and I'm sure we all went to school with amazing players who got trials but weren't successful. I'm not saying it's impossible that the scout didn't think they looked like professional footballers because professional footballers don't look Asian. Who knows. I'm just questioning how you can know that and how you can know that the kids who were picked instead of your friends were not better.

i think that most asians in britain are either indian or pakistani and cricket is the major sport,its pretty much a religion, if you looked up the participation stats by asians in cricket around britain the figure would massively increase

I mean as a side note, John Barnes once sacked waited 8 years for his next job, why?
***

because he was a very poor manager and if I was a Chairman I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole.

RedBlackandWhiteside (U2335)
posted 7 seconds ago
I mean as a side note, John Barnes once sacked waited 8 years for his next job, why?
***

because he was a very poor manager and if I was a Chairman I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fair enough

i hate the idea of quotas, people should be picked by abillity,end of. no matter what colour,race or religion.

if youre good enough, youre in.