England sets tolerant standard

By Adam Szreter

When an irate Eric Cantona plunged into the crowd after being sent off during an English Premiership match at Crystal Palace FC in January 1995, many felt it was a two-footed tackle too far by Manchester United FC's temperamental Frenchman. But Cantona's reaction to personal abuse, for which he worked 120 hours' community service, proved the catalyst for a movement that has seen racism and xenophobia in football tackled square-on, in one country at least.

English history
With its history of colonialism and immigration England was always well placed to lead the fight against racism in European football. However, as the former Liverpool FC and England international John Barnes famously said: "It took a white Frenchman to be abused in our league before racism really started being taken seriously."

New campaign
It was during the previous season that Lord Herman Ouseley, then chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, persuaded England's Professional Footballers' Association to join him in launching the Let's Kick Racism Out of Football campaign. "The first port of call was getting the game to hold its hands up and say, 'We have a problem here'," says Leon Mann of Kick it Out, the organisation that has run the campaign since 1997.

Player power
"Then with the PFA they started raising awareness and from there it became a player-based campaign, using the power and appeal of massive names to get a message out. The launch of this campaign coincided with the Cantona incident, which is a massive event in the history of our campaign, but it was getting the game to realise we had a problem which was very difficult, and I'm sure many of our European colleagues are going through that phase at the moment."

Active role
That achieved, the next hurdle was working out what to do. "We had to ensure clubs understood they needed mechanisms in place to ensure that racist abuse was reported, and that people had the confidence to make those complaints and feel they would be dealt with in the correct way," says Mann.

Simple steps
"That was done through players, stewards and clubs making public address announcements, all things which now seem quite basic. However, in terms of raising awareness that was a very hard stage to get to. Now, through match programmes and hoarding boards people feel the presence of an anti-racism organisation and have a means to report any racism they experience.

Club involvement
"It's massively important for the clubs to get involved. In this country all 92 professional clubs have some sort of anti-racism activity, and I would say 75 per cent of them will have on-going initiatives throughout the year. Some like Charlton [Athletic FC] and Leicester [City FC] have done some real ground-breaking work in terms of reaching out to their community."

Legal backing
After that it was about getting the police involved, and ensuring the seriousness of the issue was understood. "It was only in 2000 that the Football Act of 1991 was amended and racist abuse within a ground was no longer an offence you would receive a warning for, but one for which you would be ejected from the ground," says Mann.

Educational work
"Of course there has to be educational work too and working with schools we've raised awareness among the next generation," he adds. "At the moment we're working on a race equality standard which goes from youth players at clubs receiving talks on racism, diversity and equality, right up to the boardroom.

European angle
"We've seen the progress we've made here, but in other countries we know from our European partners it's not happening. The fact that only 26 of the 52 associations have taken the UEFA funding is really disheartening, particularly when we speak to campaigners who really have no funds at all to be carrying out any work, a lot which is done on a voluntary basis.

Everyone involved
"Until people really understand the seriousness of the issue we'll continue to hit a brick wall because you need that support from the governing bodies. Working with the fans certainly can make a massive contribution, but working with everybody involved in the game is key, and that's what's been crucial to our campaign in the UK."