National Anti Racism Week of Football
A Great Success!
A view on the week from Worcester City Council..
"Worcester City Council in partnership with Worcestershire F.A. , Leisure Connection, Worcester City F.C. Supporters Trust and West Mercia Police spent a week tackling racism in sport through the vehicle of football during the October half term (27th – 31st October).
A week long camp at Perdiswell Leisure Centre saw seventy—six children aged five to fifteen receive a programme of coaching designed to combat racism within football and the local communities.
Each day the children received a selection of coaching sessions including passing, control, turning, shooting, running with the ball, dribbling and team play. Throughout the day they received keynote speeches and took part in a variety of debates relating to racism within football and the influence we can all have to discourage racism. Every day, spot prizes were given out within the groups.
The players were split into four teams based on age and ability to give everyone the chance to improve their skills and also interact with different people. Each team were given their own colour and participants had to wear a their teams’ colour, the following day they had to include a colour from another team and so on until every player was wearing a colour from every team on the final day.
At the end of the week, not only were they one big colourful team but had all improved their skill and ability and enjoyed the week.
Jon Wilson, Community Football Development Officer for Worcester City Council said, “Racism is a hard topic to tackle, however, using football as a tool to combat and raise awareness helps us challenge racism and work towards positive change. The main theme through the week was that football is fun and everyone should be allowed to have fun as football is an inclusive not exclusive club.”
The fun didn’t stop there..
On Saturday November 1st fifty youngsters who had attended the week also went to Worcester City FC as guests of Worcester City F.C. Supporters Trust They spent 45 minutes on the pitch before the game and then led the players out at the start whilst wearing kick-i-out t-shirts and holding anti racism banners. At half time three players from each team took penalties at the canal end and received medals from Georgie Dragon and the Councillor Lucy Hodgson Mayor of Worcester. The other children paraded around the ground to rapturous applause from both the home and visiting supporters.
The children chosen to take penalties had submitted either a picture or a poem with regards to the week they had attended.
This is Kieran Adams entry;
Black, pink brown or white
It doesn’t matter, were alright
Christian, Muslim, Catholic or Sikh
All are welcome to our football week
Boy, girl, short or tall
All types of people can play football
So don’t be embarrassed or feel shame
We all join together to play this game
FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally, coaches involved were Paul Lewin, Paddy Mullen, Julie Whittingham, Adam McEvoy, Rob Payne, Lindon Phillips, and Jon Wilson.
Special thanks to our partners in this project Worcester City Council, Worcester City F.C. Supporters Trust, Leisure Connection and Worcester City F.C."
A big thank you as well to WCFCST Community Leader Sue Bentley for organising the day. It was a great success and a tribute to the efforts of all those involved. Well done!