Henry row at West Ham shows struggle African players face

West Ham United’s decision to sack their director of recruitment Tony Henry over derogatory remarks made about African footballers in the English Premier League has exposed the struggle African players still have to earn respect in the world’s top league.

Only two sides in the English Premier League (EPL) – Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal – have signed more than ten percent of their players from Africa, with Spurs having signed Kenya’s top player and current captain Victor Wanyama.

Crystal Palace have the most players from Africa at present, with five footballers in their first team squad, Yannick Bolasie (DR Congo), Pape Souare (Senegal), Marouane Chamakh (Morocco) Kwesi Appiah (Ghana) and Bakary Sako (Mali).

But throughout the EPL’s history, few players from Africa have been regarded as great players within the league with the exception of George Weah, Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure.

A number of issues are said to have created difficulties for African players, one of which is the African Cup of Nations, which usually comes midway through the EPL season and which has deprived clubs of important players at key times.

But there remain underlying problems of racism in recruitment with allegations that African players tend to ‘bottle it’ in big games, can’t be relied upon in a cold English mid-season and are erratic and undisciplined in their performances.

Wanyama’s performances for Spurs have gone a long way towards dispelling such myths but Henry’s statement that his club West Ham wanted to limit the number of African players because ‘they have a bad attitude’ and ‘cause mayhem’ when they are not in the team, probably reflected a widespread but not openly declared minority attitude in the EPL.

West Ham suspended Henry following his comments saying the club will not tolerate any type of discrimination. “The West Ham United family is an inclusive one where, regardless of gender, age, ability, race, religion or sexual orientation, everybody feels welcome and included.” the statement said.

But the fact remains that only 272 players have been signed by EPL clubs since the league began in 1992, the first of them being Peter Ndlovu from Zimbabwe.

Black players struggled for many years in the 1970s, 80s and 90s in England to be accepted and had to suffer racist abuse from the terraces at football grounds. Cyril Regis, the black English footballer who died recently was at the forefront of trying to take on the racists on the terraces.

Thankfully, racism is not so prominent these days but the rise of far right groups such Britain First and post Brexit attacks on immigrants have fuelled fears that these elements in English society haven’t gone away.