England Netball forced into grovelling apology after mixing up black players
Razia Quashie has been left hurt after England Netball's social media mistake
INSTAGRAM
England Netball has been forced to apologise after a birthday social media post that mixed up black players.
The national body wished player Razia Quashie happy birthday in a since-deleted message on social media.
However, they twice used a picture of a different player - much to Quashie's disgust.
Now, in a statement, England Netball have aplogised while insisting they didn't mean any 'malice or intent'.
We would like to take the time to acknowledge the mistake we made yesterday with the content shared around Razia Quashie's birthday.
— England Netball (@EnglandNetball) September 17, 2023
"We would like to take the time to acknowledge the mistake we made yesterday with the content shared around Razia Quashie's birthday," they said.
"We have spoken with and apologised to the players involved and we would like to make it clear that there was no malice or intent.
"However, it is clear that this does not minimise the impact that this has had on the players at the centre of this or those in the wider community.
"We want to work with these players and others moving forwards to improve how we operate in the future."
Quashie reacted to the post on X, formerly Twitter, and said the posts were 'exhausting, disappointing and hurtful'.
The 26-year-old made her debut for England back in 2018 and has 15 international caps.
Quashie wasn't part of the England squad that played at the World Cup earlier this year, however, due to injury.
The Vitality Roses made the final back in the summer, with Australia reigning supreme.
Jess Thirlby said back in July she was 'incredibly proud' of her side despite their failure to secure the trophy.
“We are really grateful for that silver medal and over time I think that will sink in, with that bit of history we made (in reaching the final), but right now it is a measure of the belief we had in ourselves, the route we took to the final… (that we are disappointed)," she said.
“We are obviously going to be gutted with a losing margin like that in our first final, but such is the difference between a team that has been in 12 of them and a team that has just broken into their first one, it’s a tough lesson.
“Today was always going to be a tough ask, you just can’t throw ball like that against Australia in a final.
"If we do that, we need to find a way to win it back. Unfortunately both of those things eluded us for long periods during the match.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
England Netball have apologised to Razia Quashie after mistakenly mixing up the Saracens star with other black players
PA
“We fought very hard in the first half to keep a foothold in it, but you could kind of feel we didn’t quite have the flow and the confidence.”