Kick It Out has been battling inequality in football for over 20 years and is now well into its second ‘Season of Action’, with a special focus on grassroots and community football.
The ultimate aim of the Season of Action is to provide a greater opportunity to promote KIO’s message of tolerance and the need to remove all forms of prejudice from the national game.
A spokesperson for Kick It Out said of the organisation’s work so far: “Kick It Out is working with many community and grassroots projects up and down the country in a bid to promote inclusive activities for all football supporters. We have helped with many projects throughout the season so far…
…One such project featured children from Lincolnshire who were involved in the National Citizen Service scheme, who helped raise funds for Kick It Out and raise awareness for the organisation and many other projects are being rolled out across the country.”
Though the Season of Action’s special focus is on grassroots football, top flight football is also directly involved, with seven Premier League clubs having hosted dedicated ‘Season of Action’ fixtures so far.
The spokesman added: “In 2013/14 all 92 clubs across the top four divisions in England all hosted a ‘Season of Action’ fixture and it’s expected that all 20 Premier League clubs will have hosted a dedicated ‘Season of Action’ fixture by the end of the 2014/15 season.”
Champions League hopefuls, Southampton are the latest to dedicate a fixture to the Season of Action with their game against Swansea on the 1st of February – this will hopefully expand on the progress made by the Premier League as a whole this season in tackling the issue of diversity in the profession.
In fact Chris Hughton’s recent appointment at Brighton & Hove Albion makes him the fifth BME to be appointed since the start of the season, which Kick It Out has called: “An encouraging sign that football clubs are willing to support people from a Black and Minority Ethnic background and increase diversity and inclusion within the game.”
What Kick It Out Does
Here are just some of the ways Kick It Out’s work reaches all strata of grassroots football:
- Running a national educational competition;
- Delivering school workshops
- Providing supplementary resources
- Developing its partnership work with County FAs
- Facilitating player visits led by its ‘Next 20’ ambassadors – 20 young stars from across the Premier League, Football League and Women’s Super League
Away from this, the organisation is involved in many initiatives aiming to create inclusive practices in football including the ‘Fans for Diversity’ campaign, jointly run by Kick It Out and the Football Supporters’ Federation, as well as the ‘Next 20’, which sees 20 young football stars from across the Women’s Super League, Premier League and Football League work as ambassadors to spread the key messages of the organisation.
Kick It Out is looking forward to the rest of 2015 and hopes to encourage more people to take part in the game at grassroots and community level.
If you want to get involved with any of Kick It Out’s campaigns at any of these levels you can get in touch with the organisation by calling 0207 253 0162, emailing info@kickitout.org and via Twitter on @kickitout.
