Football unites against racism

The UEFA Champions League provides a focus this week for anti-racism activities across the continent as the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network continues its Action Week.

Anti-racism message
With a television audience of millions, Europe’s highest profile club competition serves as the perfect stage to get the anti-racism message across. It also helps highlight the tireless work supporters, clubs, national associations and a myriad of other organisations do throughout the year to help rid the game of discrimination and to promote equality.

'Symbolic focus'
"Action Week is very important because it's the symbolic focus of what we do," Piara Powar, the director of the British anti-racism organisation Kick It Out, told uefa.com. "It's a time to celebrate, it's a time to spell out some very educational messages, it's a time to bring the whole of the football family together and stand as one."

Force for change
At all 16 Matchday 3 games teams will be joined on the pitch by children wearing 'Unite Against Racism' T-shirts, and tannoy announcements will promote Action Week’s anti-racism message. The driving force of Action Week, however, comes from the grassroots of the game.

'Source of pride'
"It’s a source of pride that on the one hand we'll have Frank Lampard and John Terry wearing [anti-racist] T-shirts when they turn out for Chelsea [FC] on the next couple of weekends," Powar adds. "On the other hand groups of kids in different parts of the country will be getting involved in the same action in their communities. There are 2,500 secondary schools in this country and they have all been sent information and many will get involved in a competition of some kind, a number of them will get involved in setting up some very targeted focused activities."

Leading role
Kick It Out campaigns to challenge racism in football and work for positive change through all levels of the game in Britain. It also plays a leading role within FARE and is supporting an extensive list of events during Action Week involving and uniting schools, community groups, fans and the professional game.

Chelsea initiative
Powar cites Chelsea as one example of a club involved in teaching anti-racism in their community. Through their Education Through Football programme, the Premiership club are working with the Westminster Archive and Libraries and Football Poets to teach children, through poetry workshops, of the blight of racism. "That's something that doesn't make big headlines, but it's an important side of what the club are doing," Powar said.

'Coming together'
This is FARE's sixth Action Week and it runs from 13 to 25 October. Activities are planned in 35 countries with events taking place in Ukraine and Belarus for the first time this year. In Spain, supporters groups across the country will unite to plan joint anti-racist strategies for the first time. Grassroots tournaments in Moldova and F.Y.R. Macedonia will help spread the message in those countries while in Austria and Slovakia players at top-flight games will hold up red cards bearing the message 'Show Racism the Red Card'. Action Week’s scope is vast, but its aim is simple.

'Positive message'
"It's a means of getting across a positive message and a lot of those positive messages are about the way in which the game can lead, and lead by example in terms of tackling racism and spelling out the case for diversity and really driving through the change across all sectors," Powar said. "There will be kids who have received a message, there will be kids who have been involved in something that is not just about them that spreads out beyond their locality. Hopefully we will have changed people's attitudes. When you go beyond the words, when you look at the people that are involved and how it impacts on their lives, that's the key element for us, that's the secret to all of this."

'Hard work'
Former England international John Salako praised Kick It Out’s work at its Action Week launch on Tuesday. "Over the last 20 years as a player I've seen so much progress, so much change in attitudes and that's largely been down to the hard work of initiatives like Kick It Out," he said. "It was very difficult early on and it is just so important that we carry on that work and keep it going. Obviously Action Week gives football an opportunity to make its stance to say we won't tolerate racism because racism is borne out of ignorance.

'Touch people'
"Football gives the opportunity, the platform, to touch people, to change people's attitudes and everyone's embraced that, everyone's taken that on board and certainly all the footballers, managers and coaches I know look forward to the chance to give that back."