27 October 2023 , 08:25
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Chelsea defender Niahm Charles hopes that new Football Association initiatives will give rise to an England Women's team that is more representative of the nation, adding that "we've probably failed at some point" in terms of team diversity.
Her comments arrive as the topic of representation within football in England has become a major talking point after Arsenal accepted a lack of diversity in their women's senior team amid scrutiny of an all-white squad photo posted to the club's official channels.
The club said that "our current women's first-team squad does not reflect the diversity that exists across the club and the communities we represent" and vowed to make addressing the situation a "key priority".
England boss Sarina Wiegman’s latest squad for the upcoming Nations League double-header features three players from mixed ethnic backgrounds in Manchester City keeper Khiara Keating and Chelsea duo Lauren James and Jess Carter.
Wiegman has previously said that making the national squads more representative of the nation cannot happen "overnight".
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And Charles, 24, believes new directives from the FA - which bid to solve some of the historical challenges identified such as long distances and related expenses for girls to travel to regional training centres - can start to change the current picture.
“I think, right now, you’ve kind of seen it at the top, but when you look at times gone by, yes we’ve probably not had the access in place and we’ve probably failed at some point,” Charles said ahead of the Belgium clash.
“But I think right now the things that have been put in place, you might not see them right now, the progress, but I do believe that there are things in place that – in the future, hopefully – [mean] it’ll be more representative of the society we live in.
“I have hope that, for … the clubs across the country, in terms of access at grassroots level, hopefully showing that first-team level, hopefully it [will] be more representative in the future.”
The FA launched their Emerging Talent Centres initiative earlier this year which sees centres spread out more evenly across the country.
An FA statement announcing the revamped programme claimed they “will see 95% of players accessing an ETC within one hour of where they live by 2024 and the number of young female players engaged in FA talent programmes across the country rise from 1,722 to more than 4,200 by the end of the 2023-24 season.”
England sit third in Group A after suffering a 2-1 defeat to the Netherlands in September.
The Lionesses face group leaders Belgium on Friday night in the first of two critical Nations League games at Leicester ’s King Power Stadium.