Covering the issue of role models

This week we produced our Premier League preview supplement, which is in The Times on Saturday. While we were working on the cover, something occurred that gives an insight into the way you think while producing newspapers - and makes you consider how football relates to the wider world.

For the cover, we used Subbuteo players painted with the kits of the 20 Premier League clubs. Looking at it, I realised that all the models were white, which clearly does not represent the ethnic make-up of the top flight. Would this cause offence? Should we digitally manipulate our little men or would that be worse — a miniature version of The Black and White Minstrels show?

Of course, the final verdict was: ‘They’re only Subbuteo men, there’s no hidden agenda, let it go.’ But, whenever you are producing anything that goes into the public domain, it’s worth giving a moment’s reflection as to how it will be perceived.

I thought about the cover today when hearing the debate in the wider media about the murder of Jessie James, the teenager who was shot dead in Manchester. Most of the people pitching in with an opinion — including many who have not been anywhere near the type of run-down estates where these sort of crimes take place — brought up the subject of the lack of black male role models for young people.

It struck me that there is no other area of British life where black men are so prominent as football. We take it for granted that Didier Drogba is the best striker in the Premier League, that Rio Ferdinand is England’s centre half. Ian Wright pumps out opinion over the airwaves with the same sort of energy he brought to the pitch and Paul Ince is at the vanguard of a new generation of black managers. Thierry Henry, during his Arsenal years, was as loved by the British public as any celebrity.

I’d hate to saddle any player with the notion of the ‘role model’. The only duty any player has is to himself, his family and his team. If he is a nice person who is a productive member of society, all the better. However, such is the bias against footballers, they are rarely cited as a positive influence.

The talking heads who patronise the subject say things like “the media should focus on black lawyers and businessmen,” largely because they come from backgrounds where children grow up thinking that they can become lawyers or businessmen. In working-class areas across this country - black or white - kids cannot imagine growing up to do these jobs. They don’t know businessmen and lawyers and their parents don’t know businessmen and lawyers. The expectation for these children is limited and limiting. Lack of money is one thing but only those who have lived through a poverty of expectation realise how dangerous a mindset it can be.

The people the kids of Moss Side, of Huyton, of Peckham, know is drug-dealers and thieves. They see them making money and earning respect. They see these ‘career paths’ as achievable. But they also might know a footballer - someone from their background who has made a success of their life using their talents. And if that keeps one little scallywag closer to the straight and narrow, that’s a result.

So no black model on the cover but, thank God, plently of black faces on the pitch. And if they become role models for kids going nowhere, all the better.