Racism in Football Event, March 13th 2012
Show Racism the RED Card held an event at the National Assembly for Wales that was sponsored by Minister Huw Lewis AM.
More about this event...
The event highlighted issues of racism in the game across Wales, key guest speakers discussed what challenges lie ahead for the continued fight against racism in Wales that was evident through the presentation given by SRTRC.
The Minister for Housing, Regeneration & Heritage, Huw Lewis AM, opened the event addressing the audience on the importance of SRtRC and Anti-Racism Education, and offered his support to the cause.
Campaign manager Sunil Patel presented and discussed key factors exploring the question; ‘How far have we actually come?’. It was pointed out that there was over 30% of professional footballers playing in the 92 professional clubs, yet only 4 current black managers, also, the lack of South Asian footballers was still a cause for concern as well as the lack of diversity in boardrooms within football and society.
The audience were then shown a recent BBC video which highlighted some issues of racism in sport and society and also showed interviews with Nathan Blake and Robbie Earnshaw. The video went on to highlight some of the work SRtRC achieves in schools with Leroy Rosenior and Christian Roberts delivering workshops across Wales.
Jonathan Ford, Chief Executive of the Football Association of Wales spoke at the event further highlighting the issue that racism still exists in football and reaffirmed the FAW stance to tackle racism the continued support to the campaign.
The presentation concluded with a question and answer session to a panel that consisted of Huw Lewis AM, Jonathan Ford (FAW), Sanjiv Vedi (SRtRC Wales Chair) Sunil Patel (SRtRC), Welsh League footballer Nana Ba and Grange Harlequins manager Ishy Akhtar.
Both Nana and Ishy gave personal accounts of the racism they and their players have endured across Wales and urged more support was needed to eradicate it from the game.
The feedback we have received after the event has been positive and we will look to build upon this event in terms of tackling this on-going problem in football and society.
To see photos from the event, click HERE
A special radio broadcast from the programme ‘Eye on Wales – Racism in Football’ can be heard HERE (racism issue is from 15mins 54 secs into the broadcast
