Hi friends,
Today I will not be talking about AWFC’s current form. I won’t give you my opinions on the board, I won’t discuss the poor recruitment or Renee’s decisions. Why? Not because I don’t care but because compared to what I’m going to talk about, all of those things are irrelevant and meaningless.
I will preface this by saying that I don’t know Lianne Sanderson, I haven’t had that honor yet but we have lots of friends in common. So, when you read some of the things I say please know that it is not me being biased as I have been accused in the past when I have written about my actual friends in the sport. It goes without saying that I don’t need to be her or anyone’s friend to stand up and raise my voice.
I have never seen anyone get more abuse in my entire life than her. Never ever. Not just as a football fan on social media, but also in my professional music career where I have had the privilege of working with some of the most famous people in the world and they don’t get a fraction of the abuse she does.
Of course the abuse itself is horrific and should be criminally prosecuted too but the abuse she gets isn’t normal. It’s exponentially bad and its compounded and I cannot even being to imagine what it would be like for her to read and see it and on top of that realizing that it comes from a group of people who are supposed to be “fans” and supporters of the sport. I’ll explain in a sec.
So take a black male player for instance… they get racist insults. That’s fucking tragic and disgusting.
Take a stylish footballer like Hector Bellerin and you will see him getting homophobic comments even by very famous streamers.
Take player X with Y nationality and you will see abuse in a xenophobic fashion.
These are all terrible and inexcusable right? Now image you are a black gay woman. Just think about the intersectionality of it all.
Lianne gets abused in every permutation. I have seen it with my own eyes.
She gets attacked as:
A Woman
A woman in football
A female footballer
A black woman
A gay woman
A black, gay woman
A black footballer
A black female footballer
A black female gay footballer
A woman
An eloquent woman
A smart woman
A successful woman
A black, gay, successful, eloquent, footballer and pundit.
As a female pundit
As a stylish and eloquent pundit.
It’s fucking exhausting to write and read, can you imagine what it would be like to be her?
Also add transphobic and fat phobic comments.
These incels and self hating people need to be stopped, named and shamed for perpetuity.
It breaks my heart that someone who has done sooooo much for the game is being treated like this. One of the most alarming things is that a lot of these X accounts are children.. literally young people who have so much hate in their hearts and also lack gratitude because Lianne is one of the architects of our club and the sport as a whole.
You know how Beckham was an outlier? the style and tattoos? You know how at one point Kevin Campbell was an outlier for being a black player? You know how Thomas Hitzlsperger came out as gay years after he retired?
Lianne is all of that, and let’s not forget she won everything as a player because she was fucking fantastic and would start TODAY for most clubs and hell, I’d have her start the NLD next week.
Nothing but love and admiration for Lianne, what she did for our club, how much she has loved and supported Vic Akers through the years, for her amazing work on TalkSPORT and for making a great team whenever she appears with my dear friend Shebahn. She also has a special place in my heart whenever she comes to the Highbury Squad and chats with someone I consider family: Sophie Nicolaou, another trailblazing, gay woman in football and journalism.
BTW I wanna also say real quick how Sophie ALSO gets vile abuse on social media which is so horrific to see. Reading hateful shit said towards your friends is truly terrible and it angers me so much.These two are some of my biggest heroes and role models in life. Hope something changes for Lianne, and Sophie and women as a whole.
Lianne only deserves praise although she will be the first one to say criticism and feedback is welcome and will help her grow etc, but everything done with respect and kindness which seems to be asking a lot these days.
All she ever does is fight for women, propels the game forwards, adds professionalism and insight. Literally all she does is for the good of the fans yet they are the ones that hate.
It’s irrational.
Some of us know that she is and has done and for that I’m forever grateful.
❤
d
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