Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 43 minutes ago
lis.ac.uk - Bachelor's | Master's | MBA
Does football commentary have a racial bias problem?
Research suggests that the way commentators describe players changes with skin tone.
Darker-skinned players are more often praised for pace, power and athleticism; lighter-skinned players for intelligence, composure and leadership.
This video explores the "Pace and Power Effect": where it shows up, the research behind it, and why language meant as praise can still limit the people it describes - from the commentary box to scouting, coaching and beyond.
ABOUT THE RESEARCH
The study at the centre of this film comes from Alex Doyle, a graduate of the Bachelor of Arts and Sciences (BASc) in Interdisciplinary Problems and Methods at the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS).
Every LIS bachelor's student completes their degree with a Capstone Project: research that integrates qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as diverse disciplinary perspectives, to dive deeply into a problem area they're passionate about.
For his capstone, Alex brought together natural language processing, data science, computer visualisation and ethnographic research to investigate whether English football commentary exhibits racial bias.
Alex analysed commentary from over 1,100 match highlights covering 800 Premier League players using the GOAL dataset by Alessandro Suglia et al. (2022).
Blending data science and natural language processing, he built composite "average faces" from every player described by a given word.
The results were striking:
For 6 of the 8 cognitive attributes - words like intelligent, composed and clever - the average face showed a lighter-skinned player.
For 8 out of 8 physical attributes - words like strength, power and pace - *every* average face was darker-skinned.
Over time, those descriptions inform perceptions, and can feed inequalities.
Black players make up more than 40% of Premier League players. But only account for 4% of managerial roles (Black Footballers Partnership, 2024; Hoey, Peeters & Szymanski)
The words we use to praise players can also be the ones that limit them.
Find out more about The London Interdisciplinary School at lis.ac.uk
CREDITS
Written and Produced by Jon Cheung
Research by Alex Doyle
VO by Gráinne Sharkey
REFERENCES
McLoughlin, D. (2021). Racial Bias in Football Commentary: The Pace and Power Effect. RunRepeat, in partnership with the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA).
Gregory, S., Pleuler, D., Daly-Grafstein, D., Liu, Y., & Marchwica, P. (2021). Removing Unconscious Bias from Soccer Broadcasts. MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
Rada, J. A., & Wulfemeyer, K. T. (2005). Color Coded: Racial Descriptors in Television Coverage of Intercollegiate Sports. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 49(1), 65–85.
Hokowhitu, B. (2003). Race Tactics: The Racialised Athletic Body. Junctures: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue, 1, 21–34.
Suglia, A., Bastianelli, E., Vanzo, A., Nikandrou, M., Yu, Y., Lopes, J., Agarwal, A., Konstas, I., & Rieser, V. (2022). Going for GOAL: A Resource for Grounded Football Commentaries. Heriot-Watt University (arXiv:2211.04534).
Black Footballers Partnership (2023). Research on Black representation in football management and executive roles, led by Prof. Stefan Szymanski (University of Michigan).
lis.ac.uk - Bachelor's | Master's | MBA
Does football commentary have a racial bias problem?
Research suggests that the way commentators describe players changes with skin tone.
Darker-skinned players are more often praised for pace, power and athleticism; lighter-skinned players for intelligence, composure and leadership.
This video explores the "Pace and Power Effect": where it shows up, the research behind it, and why language meant as praise can still limit the people it describes - from the commentary box to scouting, coaching and beyond.
ABOUT THE RESEARCH
The study at the centre of this film comes from Alex Doyle, a graduate of the Bachelor of Arts and Sciences (BASc) in Interdisciplinary Problems and Methods at the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS).
Every LIS bachelor's student completes their degree with a Capstone Project: research that integrates qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as diverse disciplinary perspectives, to dive deeply into a problem area they're passionate about.
For his capstone, Alex brought together natural language processing, data science, computer visualisation and ethnographic research to investigate whether English football commentary exhibits racial bias.
Alex analysed commentary from over 1,100 match highlights covering 800 Premier League players using the GOAL dataset by Alessandro Suglia et al. (2022).
Blending data science and natural language processing, he built composite "average faces" from every player described by a given word.
The results were striking:
For 6 of the 8 cognitive attributes - words like intelligent, composed and clever - the average face showed a lighter-skinned player.
For 8 out of 8 physical attributes - words like strength, power and pace - *every* average face was darker-skinned.
Over time, those descriptions inform perceptions, and can feed inequalities.
Black players make up more than 40% of Premier League players. But only account for 4% of managerial roles (Black Footballers Partnership, 2024; Hoey, Peeters & Szymanski)
The words we use to praise players can also be the ones that limit them.
Find out more about The London Interdisciplinary School at lis.ac.uk
CREDITS
Written and Produced by Jon Cheung
Research by Alex Doyle
VO by Gráinne Sharkey
REFERENCES
McLoughlin, D. (2021). Racial Bias in Football Commentary: The Pace and Power Effect. RunRepeat, in partnership with the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA).
Gregory, S., Pleuler, D., Daly-Grafstein, D., Liu, Y., & Marchwica, P. (2021). Removing Unconscious Bias from Soccer Broadcasts. MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
Rada, J. A., & Wulfemeyer, K. T. (2005). Color Coded: Racial Descriptors in Television Coverage of Intercollegiate Sports. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 49(1), 65–85.
Hokowhitu, B. (2003). Race Tactics: The Racialised Athletic Body. Junctures: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue, 1, 21–34.
Suglia, A., Bastianelli, E., Vanzo, A., Nikandrou, M., Yu, Y., Lopes, J., Agarwal, A., Konstas, I., & Rieser, V. (2022). Going for GOAL: A Resource for Grounded Football Commentaries. Heriot-Watt University (arXiv:2211.04534).
Black Footballers Partnership (2023). Research on Black representation in football management and executive roles, led by Prof. Stefan Szymanski (University of Michigan).
