To think the BBC commentary team were far too mild in their condemnation of English player stepping on opponent

[Clafoutie]

I know from other threads that most people on MN have zero in football so hoping those people will simply not read!
To anyone who is interested, I thought that the very feeble way in which the BBC commentators responded to England player Lauren James deliberately standing on Nigerian player Michelle Alozie was incredibly disappointing and biased. The incident was totally unacceptable and Lauren James was rightly shown a red card, but the commentary team seemed to really hold back on condemning it, and later speculated about how Lauren James must have been ‘tired’ ‘frustrated’ and maybe ‘stayed on the pitch too long’, and other excuses. I get that it is only football, and hardly a big deal, but I thought it was really wrong and quite uncomfortable to watch.

He doesn't watch the men's football then? Particularly the Chelsea v Tottenham game after which Souness said he was thankful that football was back to being a man's game?

Spurs fan here. Prompted by this (thanks Ponoka7!) I've just watched back the 2016 match - it's even worse than I remembered! Brutal.

Probably. But if you watch football as much as I do you will know commentators do make errors and show bias to the home team.

The important thing is the ref got it right and James was appropriately sanctioned. End of story.

She is (was) the new golden girl of English sport. I was shocked too.

What? She didn't realise that it was a horribly violent thing to do?
She may have cost England the tournament and lost herself some valuable sponsorship.

I was shocked by what she did - as well as the aggression it could easily have led to England being knocked out of the tournament with it being a draw and extra time looming. If I was manager I'd be questioning her value to the team.

My thoughts too. I watched it over & over. I didn't see a stamp. I did hear Alex Scott comment that it would be more than a yellow

It was a stupid thing to do and she’ll get appropriate punishment, as will her team. Can’t get remotely excited about trying to be outraged at the commentators. Be angry at the stupid and selfish actions of the player, who showed zero contrition, concern or regret, to the Nigerian player as she was going off, nor to her team that she let down badly.

Actually it's ignorant to not know the association between watching football and dv. Pretty much the same excuses as on here, High tension with your team losing or winning leads to a 25% rise in reported dv during the men's world cup. Seeing this makes me think the same possibly slightly less but still a rise in dv will start to happen with womens world cup too.
And of course many many are poor role models, not always their fault they often don't go to proper school but training academies where they are controlled and don't learn how to interact well. Not to mention the hundreds who go to these from 12ish then get rejected so as an adult have poor qualifications, and struggle in normal society where they have to cope with their own food and relationships. Paying young men that sort of money is going to corrupt them anyway, it would anyone I'd think.

It was a very silly thing to do and I am sure she will learn from it. It's no excuse at all but she must have been extremely frustrated being in the Nigerians pocket the whole game and not getting the ball.

Nigeria played amazingly but I saw a lot on twitter about how they should have won. Granted, England were lucky with Nigerias shots hitting the bar and the what should have been a penalty with Lucy Bronze pushing a player in the box.

Overall Nigeria were physically such a strong team and had a good game plan but England down to 10 women held it together and showed their skills and technical ability in the penalty shoot out.

Nigeria played amazingly but I saw a lot on twitter about how they should have won. Granted, England were lucky with Nigerias shots hitting the bar and the what should have been a penalty with Lucy Bronze pushing a player in the box.

England should have had a penalty in the first half as well.

I thought the match was mostly incredibly boring and negative and this was down to Nigeria's style of play. And if you don't get the ball in the net you are not good enough, end of story. I don't blame them as they know England can be lethal in attack and they did very well at shutting that down, though it doesn't always make for entertaining viewing.

Even Man City (men's) can make loads of lovely passes and not actually score. You don't get any marks for playing nicely but not scoring.

I agree if you don't get the ball in the net you aren't good enough. I was surprised I think at just how physical and strong Nigeria were and I wasn't expecting it. To be honest I thought we would walk it, so I mean luck for England in that Nigerias shots did miss/penalty not given, not that England shouldn't have won. I don't agree with people saying they deserved to win just what I had seen.

I am torn with the first half penalty as Rachel Daly definitely took a dive but then again her shirt was pulled/she was pushed - just the argument it started outside the box, but saying that it continued inside as well...

I also agree with pass pass pass games, boring. I hate watching the Spanish men's national team as they have the constant pass style of play and it is crap.

Looking like it will be Colombia for us next, well known for being dirty players!

Just to clarify, when I said "it wasn't a stamp..." I certainly wasn't condoning it. It was definitely a red card and probably should be a 3 match ban.

I was just trying to clarify what actually happened. Stamp sounds like she raised her foot and brought it down hard in an act of anger or aggression. What actually happened was weirdly emotioness. She also pressed down with both hands first so not even a quick spur of the moment thing.

I am so disappointed in her. She seemed such a good role model who was a hero.

Lauren has publicly apologised to Michelle Alozie and has promised to learn from her mistake. Good for her. She is an excellent young player, and I wish her well.

Biased commentary is to be expected, indeed imagine the complaints if the BBC were not biased when a home nation is playing.

Though the bias towards Manchester United, a team who have not won the league in ten years, for domestic football, is something I think the BBC should stop.

Glad to read of Lauren James's response today.

She stepped on her not “ Stamped”.
I was expecting something much worse!

I agree about how strange and calm she seemed.

I don't condone, but could in a way understand a rash tackle or a player losing their heads in the moment, but Lauren James first used her hands on the other player's back to get up and then just stood on her.
Her face was just blank and unemotional. The same when she got the red card. She almost seemed to smirk when she went off.
It was weird one of the commentators said something like "We can't know if it was deliberate."
Oh come on! 🙄

On the positive side it was lovely to see the three England players consoling the Nigerian goalie and also the classy comments on the news articles from Nigerian fans wishing England good luck in the tournament.

I think we are all comparing it to Beckham in 1998 in hope! Beckham was a young player in his first senior tournament in 1998, just like Lauren James, and had made a huge impression and greatly improved the team.

After his moment of stupidity, he grew up incredibly quickly and basically became Mr. England. He always played well, was sometimes downright inspirational, and ended up as a proud England captain and good role model.

Lauren James has been criticised for immaturity long before this tournament. This might be the turning point ...

and would you describe it as a ‘stamp’?

I didn't consider what James did as a STAMP, it was a STEP on the prone player, wrong but definitely not a stamp. To me a stamp would have needed James to have lifted her leg then brought it down with force. This didn't happen.

I agree about how strange and calm she seemed.

I don't condone, but could in a way understand a rash tackle or a player losing their heads in the moment, but Lauren James first used her hands on the other player's back to get up and then just stood on her.
Her face was just blank and unemotional. The same when she got the red card.

This is my point. It was the calm, deliberate-ness of it that makes it worse. She didn't react angrily in a moment of red mist after someone had hurt her or something which (whilst not condoning) would be understandable. She calmly put her full bodyweight, in studded boots into the small of another person's back. That, to my mind is much worse.

The rest of the Team did brilliantly to play 10 vs 11 for another 40mins. All of the other players (plus Serena's selection and tactics) should be applauded for how well they did, playing for so long, with such a disadvantage.

He 'calm and calculated' action might have not only put her Team out of the tournament, but could, of course have seriously injured another person. She may only be 21, but that is old enough to know that is just not the way to behave.

It wasn’t a stamp but nonetheless it was disgraceful. I can’t help thinking that people ‘have to have it in them’ to show that sort of behaviour whatever the circumstances.

She’s young and hopefully she will move on from this and it won’t define her.

The wording of her apology leaves a lot to be desired. Sorry for what happened should have been very sorry for what I did. I think a better worded apology would help improve the way she is viewed.

No, I also agree it was about right. What do you want @Clafoutie her blood? Lauren made a silly mistake. I don't know whether she did it deliberately, (seriously doubt it!) whether she was just careless, or whether she did just accidentally stumble over/step on the Nigerian player (Michelle Alozie.) But football players are doing stuff like this all the time. It's not great but she hasn't badly hurt someone, and she has said sorry, and Michelle has graciously accepted her apology.

I thought it was a shame that she was banned from the quarterfinal, but I'm actually devastated that she's banned from the semis as well. We NEED her, and this could cost us. Even if they get into the final, it's all going to feel a little bit like a bitter taste in the mouth to Lauren. She'll probably think she doesn't deserve to be there, and she probably feels like she's met all her mates down.

She's still very young, and she is very contrite and apologetic, and has kept her head down and kept quiet apart from saying she's really sorry. So I think she'll probably manage to get through this ... This could destroy some people's careers, before it started. But I don't think it'll ruin Lauren's because she's apologised, and accepted her punishment - and for another specific reason that I'm not going to mention.

It was dreadful
Some people said oh it was a mistake, it was a choice and it was an assault
If you'd done that in the street you could be on trouble with the police.
It was out and out thuggery, should be sent home.
Don't these silly, hot-headed thugs realise people look up to them.

No wonder nobody wants to be a grass roots referee these days. Show an example.

Where have I said she didn’t realise it wasn’t the right thing to do? I’m very sure she’s well aware of all the consequences. She doesn’t need people constantly berating her for it. Some of the comments I have seen online about her since have been disgusting, including people saying they hope she gets as much stick as Beckham did, they now refuse to call her by any other name but Reece James’ sister, that she deserves everything she gets. This is not okay. And commentators going over the top with their feedback on her behaviour would only make things worse.

I totally agree! My sister and I were talking about this and it could have been so much worse if she dug her heels in a little more. She could of finished the other girls career and physical health. She got off very lightly and should of been banned all together. Tackling is one thing but putting pressure on someones spine is another! Could of been so much worse... I find a lot goes over people's heads these days unless it's one of their own family members then it's a totally different story! Xx