Diversity Policy

Last updated: May 2026

This page sets out Football Insider’s diversity policy — both in our editorial coverage of football and in the conduct standards we apply within the publication. The page is referenced by the Site’s NewsMediaOrganization schema as the diversityPolicy for Trust Project transparency. Football is a global game played and supported by the full diversity of humanity; our coverage and our newsroom values reflect that.

1. Coverage diversity

Beyond the major five leagues

Most football coverage on most publications focuses on the “big five” leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1). Football Insider devotes the largest share of editorial bandwidth to these because they are where readership demand is concentrated, but we deliberately cover football beyond the big five:

• Italian football across the pyramid (Serie B, Serie C, the Italian semi-pro and amateur scene where it intersects with player-development pipelines).
• Other major European competitions outside the big five (Eredivisie, Primeira Liga, Belgian Pro League, Scottish Premiership, Turkish Süper Lig).
• South American football (Brazilian Serie A, Argentine Primera División, Copa Libertadores).
• North American football (MLS, USL, Liga MX).
• Asian football (J League, K League, AFC Champions League, AFC Asian Cup).
• African football (CAF Champions League, AFCON, major continental leagues).
• Women’s football across competitions, with particular attention to UEFA Champions League women’s, the major women’s leagues (WSL, Liga F, Serie A Femminile, Bundesliga women’s, NWSL), and major international tournaments.

Coverage of these areas is constrained by the editorial team’s expertise; we use outside contributors with regional specialism where appropriate (see Meet the Team).

Women’s football

Women’s football is editorial subject of equal seriousness with men’s football, not a “lifestyle” or “sidebar” category. Specifically:

• Women’s match coverage uses the same standards as men’s (named writers, statistical context, tactical analysis, source-quality discipline).
• Women’s transfer-market coverage uses the same source-tier and confidence-framing standards.
• Women’s tactical analysis is treated as football analysis, not as “women’s football analysis” with an asterisk.
• Women’s player-of-the-week, season-end, and historical recognition coverage is integrated alongside men’s, not segregated into separate “women’s” pages or sections.

The investment in women’s-football coverage is editorial-direction-driven and predates any commercial calculation; the women’s game is one of the most rapidly developing parts of the sport and serious coverage is overdue.

Coverage of marginalized groups in football

We cover the experiences of marginalized groups within football seriously:

• Racism in stadiums, in clubs, in officiating, and in football media — reported with the framing it deserves and not normalized.
• The experiences of LGBTQ+ players, supporters, and figures in a sport that has historically been hostile to openness about sexuality and gender identity.
• Antisemitism in football, both contemporary and historical.
• Anti-Muslim bias in football, particularly around major tournaments.
• Refugee and migrant footballers’ stories where relevant to the football beat.
• The economics of football’s labor pyramid — the gap between top-flight earners and the youth-academy and lower-league realities.

2. Newsroom conduct

Within Football Insider, the editorial-team conduct standard is:

• No tolerance for racist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim, anti-Asian, homophobic, transphobic, or sexist conduct, in editorial discussions or in published content.
• Open discussion of editorial-judgment questions about how to cover difficult topics.
• Outside contributor cohort actively cultivated for diverse voices — particularly women writers covering the women’s game and writers from regions outside the team’s base of European football experience.
• Reader feedback that points out coverage gaps or discriminatory framing is taken seriously and acted on, not deflected.

3. Language

Our editorial language standards:

• We use the names players prefer for themselves where preferences are known and verifiable.
• We use gender-neutral language where possible without making it clunky; we do not assume male as default in football contexts where the women’s game is also relevant.
• We avoid framing that essentializes nationality or ethnicity (“the Brazilian flair”, “Italian defending”, “African physicality” framed as innate-trait clichés rather than as descriptions of stylistic patterns where they actually apply).
• We do not use ableist, sexist, or otherwise-discriminatory phrasing.
• We acknowledge uncertainty about player names where transliteration or formal-name conventions are contested; we follow the player’s own preferred Latin-script rendering where known.

4. Coverage of contentious figures

Where football figures are themselves involved in conduct that conflicts with the values described above — racist statements, homophobic comments, links to extremist organizations — coverage is journalistic. We report on the conduct, on the responses (clubs, leagues, federations, fellow players), and on the broader context. We do not normalize, soft-pedal, or shield. We also do not pile on for clicks; coverage is proportionate to the news significance.

5. What this policy does not claim

• It does not claim that our coverage is fully representative of the global game. The team’s expertise and operational scale limits coverage breadth; the policy describes the direction we work in, not a claim that the destination is reached.
• It does not claim that the editorial team is itself maximally diverse. The team is small; recruiting beyond the founding team is an ongoing process described in Meet the Team.
• It does not claim editorial neutrality on questions like “is racism bad?” or “should LGBTQ+ players be safe in football?” — these are not balanced editorial questions and the policy says so directly.

6. Reader feedback

Readers who identify coverage gaps, discriminatory framing, or other diversity-relevant editorial issues are encouraged to contact editor [at] footballinsider [punto] store. Constructive criticism is taken seriously and informs editorial direction.

Related pages: Ethics · Editorial Standards · About Us · Meet the Team · Feedback