Aston Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel
This weekend again saw English football spreading the One Game, One Community message as teams in all four divisions got behind the weeks of action.
The initiative, coordinated by Kick It Out, began on 16 October and signalled the start of a 12 day period of nationwide activity to celebrate diversity and form a united stand against discrimination.
The last week has seen a number of high-profile events supporting the One Game, One Community weeks of action. The professional game saw fan mosaics at the televised games at Middlesbrough and Stoke City, with over 15,000 fans taking part.
As well as getting involved on match days, scores of clubs organised events for schoolchildren, with events taking place at Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Millwall, Coventry City and Oldham Athletic featuring Q&A sessions with players. More will follow at Peterborough and Bolton next week.
Discussions
The campaign has also seen a number of panel discussion events taking place, including an event at the FA’s Soho Square headquarters entitled ‘Homophobia – football’s final taboo?’ and an event in association with EnglandFans entitled ‘Can Theo Be The New Becks?’.
The campaign also held an Asians in Football event in Manchester with Wes Brown and Zesh Rehman. Kick It Out ambassador, Chelsea and France striker Nicolas Anelka said: “In football there are lots of origins, cultures, religions and nobody feels left out or different.
"We are all together in a team, we all play together and we are all friends even if we don’t have the same culture or come from different countries, we all want to play and enjoy football.”
Fellow ambassador, Fernando Torres added: “Racism has no place in any sport or society in general. We must speak out against it wherever it occurs. Kick It Out’s work helps raise awareness of such things.”
Don Goodman, Luther Blissett, Curtis Davies, Earl Barret, Cameron Jerome, Emile Heskey, Paul Elliott, Robbie Earle, Brendan Batson, Bangra singer H Dhami, The FA’s Lucy Faulkner and gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell have all contributed to the weeks so far.
