The One Game One Community weeks of action are now over for another year, and 2009 was the most successful campaign to date.
With all 92 professional clubs in England and Wales joining community groups, grassroots teams, schools and county FAs in showing their support for the campaign, there were a huge number of innovative and exciting events taking place through the thirteen days.
Amongst the highlights were the four One Game grassroots football events, which took place at Newcastle United, Crystal Palace, Bradford City and Charlton Athletic.
As well as each dedicating a home match to supporting the campaign, professional clubs also organised events where local schools and community groups were able to meet some of their heroes. Amongst the stars attending such events were Aston Villa's Ashley Young, Birmingham City's Maik Taylor and Tottenham Hotspur's Jermaine Jenas.
One of the campaign's most loyal supporters is Ford, who once again hosted local schoolchildren at their Dagenham headquarters, for an event also attended by popstar Lemar and England physio Gary Lewin.
Kick It Out's mascot Kio was a new addition to the 2009 weeks of action, and he certainly made his mark with visits to a huge number of games, including Everton vs Wolves, Chelsea vs Blackburn and West Ham vs Arsenal.
Another exciting innovation for 2009 was the Dream Manager competition, which saw legendary ex-pros including Andy Cole, Earl Barrett, Paul Elliott and Paul Davis give lucky competition winners an hour-long coaching session.
There was also room for some legends of the game to make their mark in another way during the weeks of action, as Liverpool heroes John Barnes and Howard Gayle attended a Kick It Out event at Liverpool's International Slavery Museum, where they answered questions from local schoolchildren about their experiences with discrimination in football.
Kick It Out are proud of the continued support given to the weeks of action by the FA and the England team, and this year was no exception, with the whole England squad posing for a photo in One Game One Community t-shirts and manager Fabio Capello recording a video message of support for the campaign.
The One Game One Community campaign is also part of the Europe-wide Football Against Racism in Europe Action Week, and as with recent seasons, UEFA ensured that every Champions League and Europa League game played during the period included PA announcements, posters and ‘Unite Against Racism’ captains’ armbands on display.
Some of the highlights of the 2009 weeks of action can be seen in the slideshow below.
If you have any weeks of action images you'd like to see showcased here, email info@kickitout.org
