Standing Together? Charting the Development of Football’s Anti-Racism

Abstract

The development of anti-racist strategies has been a notable feature of British football in the last decade. These schemes varied in size and scope from national programmes funded to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds, through to localised projects run by a few motivated individuals. Many have originated from professional football clubs, sometimes in conjunction with several other agencies. The diversity of these initiatives means that, in some respects, it is problematic to group them all under an all-encompassing banner of ‘anti-racist strategies’. Indeed, some of the smaller initiatives have adopted the tactics similar to many single-issue pressure groups and have little in common, or indeed little liaison with, more high-profile national campaigns. Several club-based schemes have adopted educational aspects whilst others are more concerned with prohibiting racism within stadia through the imposition of rules and regulations.