'Where you really from?' - Race and identity in Northern Irish football



The former NI youth international has played for two different teams.

Rosie was at youth level in Northern Ireland for more than six years. She didn't feel part of the team.

Her team-mates had a poor relationship with her. comradery was the antidote.

She was the only mixed race player on the team. It wasn't something discussed in depth with her fellow players, not through avoidance, but more a shared desire to spend their time discussing tactics or any form of "complete nonsense" that to dominate changing rooms.

When representing a country of which 98.2% of the population is white, Zubier became the subject of scrutiny.

"When we were in Florida, a couple of other teams thought I was wearing the wrong kit, because they couldn't believe I was Northern Irish," says the 18-year-old.

It happened when I was playing in the Euro qualification matches in Edinburgh and Slovenia.

A Sudanese father who moved to the west of the city as a child has seen his national identity called into question on an almost daily basis.

It was not the case for Zubier, who was seen to offer a safe haven from the difficult realities of life, a characteristic cherished by sport lovers across the world. Her race was placed further into the spotlight because she was representing Northern Ireland.

She says it makes you feel like you don't belong.

"If I went to Sudan people would say 'oh you're not from here' but I get people saying it to me here as well."

I don't know what I'm supposed to do, and I don't know where I fit in. I don't know who my friends are.

People find a way of excusing it.

The experiences of three non-white football players growing up in Northern Ireland are the subject of a short film.

The film explores the idea that football can provide a shared experience that doesn't divide, but it can also be part of the problem. The magnified emotions experienced in both watching and playing sport can give people an opportunity to say whatever they want and put it down to the heat of the moment.

"I think because football is based on emotion, people get caught up in the moment and say things that they wouldn't say in a normal setting."

Everyone is like "oh I suppose they just said it in the heat of the moment, we can forgive them".

The thing that is preyed on by people of colour is something that is inherently different about them. The minority group in football teams are often people of colour.

The black person would get a lot more stick if a white person made a mistake on the pitch.

People find a way of excusing it.

People are trying to learn.

There is work to be done. As society finds ways to confront racism, who should lead the charge?

The onus is not on youth players, particularly ethnic minorities, to open avenues of conversation and change according to Zubier.

The decision makers within the sports and the clubs need to be motivated for change. It is something that, if slowly, is happening in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd.

She says that the majority of people she knows and would be around have made more of an effort to learn about other people's cultures.

I think it's amazing to see.

It is the first time in my life that other people have chosen to educate themselves about where I'm from and where my family are from.