Romano Denneboom’s powerful body, the speed of Eljero Elia and Suárez’ ego trips. Dutch football commentary is full of stereotypes, especially when it comes to Latin American players or those from the Surinamese immigrant community.

That’s the conclusion of Jacco van Sterkenburg’s PhD thesis, Race, ethnicity and the sports media. As yet, no stereotyping of Dutch-Moroccan footballers has been isolated.

“As a football fan, you don’t notice the stereotypes. Patterns only become obvious when you analyse them.”

His analysis is of commentaries from Dutch television's most popular football programme - broadcast by commercial broadcaster RTL - in the period 2007 to 2008.

Physical terms
“There was a distinct pattern discernible concerning Dutch-Surinamese and Latin American players. The Surinamese were often described in physical terms, involving power or speed, or negatively as physically small and unable to score a goal. They were described in terms of their physical characteristics far more often than would be expected.”

The sports commentators stressed very different qualities when talking about Latin Americans, often with negative undertones. “They were more often described in terms of their tactical qualities and their team orientation – to what extent they were team players.” Mr Van Sterkenburg cites commentaries about the Argentinian goalkeeper Sergio Romero. “Commentators implied that he failed to keep to the basic rules of goalkeeping, again a negative stereotype.”

Colonial
Why do these groups stand out? Mr Van Sterkenburg thinks it’s to do with colonialism. “That could explain the stereotyping of Dutch-Surinamese. It’s certainly not by chance – you’ve only to look at the literature. Historians have found the same. Centuries ago, during the era of slavery, Surinamese were described in physical terms. In later times, Surinamese migrants were still being described in the same way. It’s not so surprising that I’ve found football commentators doing the same.”

Moroccans
He thinks his findings concerning Dutch-Moroccan players are interesting. “In the Dutch media, Moroccans are a conspicuous group, often presented in a negative light. I couldn’t find evidence of this in my research into the sports media. Dutch-origin players were not described much differently from Dutch-Moroccan footballers.”

The stereotypes have little to do with racism or with scientific proof.

“Commentators do their work conscientiously, but theirs is a one-sided and chiefly a white viewpoint.”

He admits that his research is based on broadcasts from three years ago. Has nothing changed since then?

“The stereotypes that I discovered are so deeply rooted that I don’t think things will have changed in the interim. The army of commentators is just as white and male as it was when I did my research. Pierre van Hooijdonk sometimes gets to talk, but only for a bit. The big broadcasts which are seen by many people, are still ethnically homogeneous.”

(mw/tf)