How Kick It Out were shut out of the Premier League’s anti-racism ad campaign

You may have noticed the Premier League’s “No Room for Racism” campaign running during the past fortnight. It has just concluded, at the end of one of the worst periods of racist incidents the game has experienced in a long time, in which one of English football’s most prominent players, Danny Rose, revealed he has had enough of football.

England’s players, including Rose and Raheem Sterling, racially abused by Montenegro supporters during a Euro 2020 qualifier. Young Juventus striker Moise Kean subjected to monkey chants by Cagliari supporters and then apportioned 50 per cent of the blame. Multiple racist incidents blighting the EFL during the weekend.

Who would have thought that an isolated campaign and call to action devised without any request of input from Kick It Out, who have this season marked a quarter of a century fighting racism in football on a shoestring budget, wouldn’t have had much impact?

No room for Kick It Out

There was the pretence of No Room for Racism working with Kick It Out, of course. They included Kick It Out’s logo. They included Kick It Out t-shirts. They included Kick It Out captain’s armbands. Only, that was all going to be on display for a lot of No Room for Racism’s two weeks anyway, because it was run during Kick It Out’s annual Week of Action, for some reason. If anything, it could’ve been potentially confusing for clubs that there was something else on at the same time.

During the announcement of No Room for Racism, the Premier League’s interim chief executive Richard Masters was keen to point out that the they had worked with Kick It Out since 1993. “Working with Kick It Out, great progress has been made in tackling racism,” he said. Only not, it seems, on the No Room for Racism campaign. No room for racism, and no room to fit a chair for a representative from Kick It Out around the table during discussions.

Kick It Out were told of the plans and how they would be incorporated was discussed. Yet at no point were they asked to contribute to the policies or publicity. The Premier League clubs acknowledged that not enough was being done and agreed new ways to help black, Asian and minority ethnic coaches and referees become part of the game, but for some reason didn’t think to consider the views of a campaign group which has spent the past 25 years fighting for such causes.

A celebration of nothing

When the Premier League was challenged on the exclusion of Kick It Out, it made clear it was responding to calls from Kick It Out’s outgoing chairman Lord Herman Ouseley for clubs to do more to fight racism at grounds. Which is weird, because what they came up with was not at all what Lord Ouseley advised and it was fairly straightforward. He wanted a full review of the past 25 years analysing what, exactly, the footballing authorities and clubs had been doing to tackle racism, and he wanted all of the game’s stakeholders to work together to achieve change.

Instead, the fortnight was not an acceptance of what little had been done for the past 25 years, but – get this – it was dubbed a “celebration” in promotional material released by the league.

A celebration of what, exactly? While they’re busy patting each other on the back, black players feel unable to kick a ball in a stadium without fear of being abused because of their skin colour.

Actual anti-discrimination campaigners have derided the Premier League’s campaign as “pathetic” and “gloss” to me during the past week. Arrogant, ignorant, misguided – they are some of my own words I’d add of the approach to it all.

Actual anti-discrimination campaigners did not want posters and newspaper ads. If the Premier League had consulted Kick It Out, they might’ve been able to tell them that.

Racism continues

I’m sure just as Tony is about to start up a racist chant from the stands, Steve will turn to him and say: “Did you not see the No Room for Racism full page wraparound ad in the Sunday Times’ sports section? It was very powerful.” And you only had to turn the page to see one of the lead stories was about more racism in the game.

Perhaps a league that has allowed its members to pay agents £260m in one year, when it devotes only £250,000 annually to the game’s main racism fighters, is not best-placed to find a solution by itself.

Using the Premier League’s valuation of Kick It Out, the money Mino Raiola creamed from the deal taking Paul Pogba from Juventus to Manchester United in 2016 could have kept Kick It Out in business for 120 years.

It’s OK – I can hear you saying – Kick It Out are surely being involved in discussions with the Football Association, Premier League and EFL about an independent panel to deal with racism in the game. Wrong, again. That invite must have got lost in the post. Or perhaps the homing pigeon was waylaid.