God save your mad parade

There's been a lot of gum flapping going on in both the traditional media and the shiny new social media of twitter, facebook and various blogs about Scottish women footballer, Kim Little's refusal to sing 'God Save the Queen' at the opening game for Team GB.

I'm a little perturbed that Kim has become the focus of my fellow disgruntled Independence supporters. Her vow of silence was great, she's a bonny, photogenic blonde who plays in London for Arsenal ladies. Thanks to the Daily Mail, I know she's from Aberdeen and her grandad supports the SNP.

What I don't see a lot of umbrage about, is the fact that Kim was also joined in this vow of silence by Cumbernauld lass Ifeoma Dieke. Ifeome has 90 caps, is by far the senior player, has plied her trade as a professional women's footballer in Greece, USA and Sweden where she currently plays for Vitsjö GIK.

Ifeoma's story is relevant to the civic nationalism that the SNP, Greens and other progressive political parties in Scotland embrace. Born in Massachusetts to Nigerian parents, she ended up in, of all places associated with women's football, Cumbernbauld, the home of the fictional Gregory's Girl...

 

I don't agree with Ifeoma and Kim Little's decision to play for Team GB, but I understand how as a professional athlete the appeal to become an Olympian is quite probably overwhelming. I will however stand up to the aggression directed at them from the UK media. Only it strikes me as odd that so far it's only being directed at Kim. Why? I'm wondering why of all the Welsh men and the Scottish women playing for their respective teams, why Ifeoma's vow of silence hasn't garnered the same level of reportage? There's even a facebook page supporting Kim, but no mention of Ifeoma... Someone I spoke to earlier mentioned perhaps that the UK media didn't want to be accused of racism by focussing on Ifeoma. Has that ever stopped them before? I imagine that it actually suits the British media agenda to focus on the blonde blue eyed Kim as the face of stubborn nationalism and quietly side step the fact that Scotland has a diverse and multi-ethnic community exemplified by Ifeoma.

We do have a strange relationship in Scotland with football and our non-white players. I don't mean the horrific banana throwing at Mark Walters and Paul Elliot or the abuse handed out to John Barnes when Kenny Dalgleish deemed him good enough to become the Celtic coach or even the reluctance of Scottish managers to cap Kevin Harper when he was one of the most exciting players we have ever produced. The international careers of Nigel Quashie and Chris Iwelumo were spectacularly short, particularly odd given they were consistently playing at a higher level than their SPL team mates. Quashie's career became notable for being the first black player to play for Scotland since Andrew Watson captained the team in 1881. Iwulemo will forever be remembered for the god awful miss against Norway. Football history doesn't mention the fact that Stephen Fletcher missed a sitter in that game and the previous game had seen Kris Boyd similarly sklaff a sitter over the bar from six feet out. Iwulemo was cursed by the Scottish football media, his skin colour seemed to produce such cringe inducing descriptions of his play as 'naive'. We still hear these subtle descriptions whenever the African Cup is televised on BBC... 'Yes, Terry they may be super athletes, full of talent, but their tactical play is...naive.'

As to Ifeoma, I imagine she's pleased not to be picked on and can just get on with what she does best, playing football. Kim will become the poster girl for my fellow Independisatas and I'll just feel that we're still not thinking about inclusiveness as much as we should be...