Not What it Look Like- England Under-20s Football Stars in Their Training Camp

At first glance, they look like any bunch of young lads sitting down to a meal. In this case, they happen to be the England Under-20s football squad. Look more closely, though, and you will see a startling fact: one table is entirely inhabited by black players, the other by white.

The same pattern can be seen in other pictures taken at the squad’s training base during a tournament in France last month.

Exercising in the swimming pool, six white players line up alongside each other, while the black youngsters gather together at the other end of the pool. And on a line of training bikes, it is the same story. Black and white separated by colour.

So what are we to make of it?

It is clear there is no animus between the groups. Indeed, other pictures taken during the tour show the squad training, laughing and joking together with no divisions at all. They are comfortable and happy in each other’s company. And yet as we can see, more than once — in social and sporting situations — the group seems subconsciously to divide in two.

There is clearly no racism at play here, in either direction, but the pictures illuminate an element of British society that is too often ignored, not least because in this politically correct age it is deemed taboo.

Look at playgrounds and parks, youth clubs and nightclubs and you will see this pattern repeated time and again. Whites will socialise with whites, blacks with blacks, and Asians with Asians. They effectively segregate themselves.