“It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, male or female, football breaks down boundaries.”

Emdad Rahman interviews Paul Elliott MBE

Sporting Equals hosted a key event for senior executives from the ethnic media as well as CEOs, development directors and marketing executives from national governing bodies of sport. The objective was to engage ethnic media into sport to ensure information on sport is available to all and to enable sports to access untapped markets to increase participation. The proceedings were chaired by award winning journalist and author Mihir Bose. Former Charlton, Luton, Aston Villa, Pisa, Chelsea, and Celtic star Paul Elliott MBE was a guest at the event.

The former Scottish footballer of the year was one of England’s best exports and his career was cut short at the ripe age of 30 after he failed to recover from damage to his cruciate and lateral ligaments sustained after a tackle by Welshman and ex-Derby County, Liverpool and Aston Villa favourite Dean Saunders.

Elliott is now a FIFA and Sporting Equals Ambassador and he explained the reasons for the event being organised. “It’s to bring everybody here and to celebrate the core ethos of Sporting Equals,” he said. “We want to encourage mass participation from BME communities across a whole raft of sports. 

“Mass participation is very important, but across a cross section of sports. There has to be a level playing field. Inclusion is very important. The media have a role to play in promoting inclusion and diversity. There are numbers of people from the BME community who are marginalised.

“Let’s get mass participation and get engaging with the BME community with great leadership from sporting equals. Those who have the drive and talent to proceed further will and should do so.”

Elliott reminisced about his youth and the support and encouragement he received as an aspiring young footballer:  “I come from a very sporting background. My mother and father back in Jamaica were very good athletes. I loved sports and I had very good role models who were in athletics.

“Through my enjoyment and through knowing I was going to have equality of opportunity, there were role models who encouraged and pushed me saying ‘Paul you can actually do better.’ And I think that’s such an integral intervention. Once you get that entry point, it’s those role models and the social benefits as well.

“When I was at a football club and a running club I understood about building relationships, building community relationships. I call it community cohesion. And thereafter I was very lucky to go onto the league level.

“I never started off with that aspiration but as a consequence of the barriers broken and pathways that were open to me, they created good relationships then that gave me a gilt edge opportunity to be the best I could be.”

Like other black people trying to break into sports, Elliott too witnessed his fair share of racism: “I even recall as a young man. The issue of racism has been here for many years. I remember experiencing racism when I was very young. And sometimes I thought if all football was going to be like that.

“We have to realise that racism is not only a problem in football. It’s a societal problem. Football is not responsible for that. Football is here as a vehicle to engage and mobilise and the diversity of football and the enjoyment of football does the right thing. It welcomes people, it engages people, it brings a collective collaborative spirit to a team. Players respect each other because of their cultural diversities.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, male or female, football breaks down boundaries. It breaks down barriers. When I was 14 or 15 I lost a little bit of interest due to some experiences I had but that soon re-emerged as I knew there was ignorance, lack of education and that sometimes created negativity. I wasn’t going to allow that to stop me so thereafter I became very focussed and then obviously went on to forge my way through professional sport.

“Sport is here, sport is for life. Sport is for everyone regardless of race, colour, creed, religion, gender, cultural background. Look at the wonderful benefits sport can bring to you – psychologically, physically, emotionally, professionally, financially. Just for mass enjoyment sport is a very intrinsic part of our life.

“We’re going to see the Olympics this summer and see what sport actually means to people. You’re going to see a wonderful, diverse and eclectic mix of people that just want to engage in sport and the most important thing thereafter is a sustainable legacy. So I would encourage everybody, black or white, male and female: there are so many wonderful benefits to be gained from sport, whatever level you’re involved in.

“There are those at the elite end, which is wonderful but you get just as much enjoyment from improving your physical and mental health and wellbeing. And the by-product of that is that gives you a better quality of life. The education that comes from being fit, understanding about eating the right things and doing the right things, these are all by-products of being involved in sport and the added value and education it gives you about understanding yourself.

“Then there are social benefits, cultural benefits, environmental benefits, and the professional benefits. So more than ever in these hardened times – we’re in a global economic recession and I sense that sport gives people a lot of comfort, it gives them a feel good factor being involved and being engaged in sport and that is one of the principle reasons why we encourage such participation.”

Elliott was invited to David Cameron’s football racism summit at 10 Downing Street. He spoke of his experience mingling with the powerbrokers of British politics and sport.

“When I came out of the game I wanted to give something back. For me it was all about not taking, but giving back and creating a legacy. And using the knowledge and experiences I’ve had to good effect. David Cameron gave the first speech, then David Bernstein the FA Chair and I spoke thereafter just giving an overview of the issues around racism, discrimination, prejudice, from the late 70’s and early 80’s when I started my career to the 21st century, and looking at the challenges we’ve had and the manner in which we’ve addressed those challenges.

“And then saying there are still issues now which have been highlighted at the elite end of the game and how we’re going to collectively, cohesively address them.

“The message was to all the footballing stakeholders, whether it be the Premier League, the Football League, The Football Association, Kick it Out, the PFA, LMA. My role was to say hey, we have got the power in this room. If we want to make meaningful and sustainable change it takes leadership and it takes power. And we’ve got the power inclusive of the government intervention  to acutely realise the value of sport, the value of inclusion, the value of diversity, the value of equality of opportunity for BME candidates at all levels of the game, whether it be volunteering, grassroots, whether it be a coach or manager. So these are key, strong messages that hopefully were conveyed.”

With regards to high profile recent cases surrounding discrimination in football, Elliott added: “The Government’s intervention was critical because, first and foremost, no one is above the law. Football is not above the law and if there’s clear evidence that there are breaches of that law, the Government has the authority, they have to intervene. But it was in good spirit. The PM had seen some of the great work that had been done but obviously the issues that had been carrying on lately, the high profile issues, had sent out a positive message. While you had high profile players involved at high profile clubs, the issue of racism has re-emerged. That’s a fact. Because of the profile of football, particularly the premiership, the magnitude of those clubs and players, then there has to be intervention.

“And in truth, if you look at the FA’s decision against Suarez, that was leadership. That was zero tolerance application of the law. And it bought out areas that football has to modernise itself fit for purpose for the 21st century. And equally for the communities I think it’s very important that we have participation there. Those like myself and other black coaches, black managers – there are parties from the Asian community there, from the football federation, because at the end of the day what is football? You look at football, you look at stadiums, it’s a diverse, eclectic mix of people. Football is inclusive. We want more BME visibility at stadiums. We want more visibility within the structures of the game, within administration, within coaches, most importantly on the field of play as role models because they are the ones that galvanise and inspire and aspire other young Asians to raise their aspirational levels.

“So I think that the presence of that very diverse eclectic mix of people at Downing Street was a very positive message of ‘look where we are now in the 21st century debating these very serious and sensitive issues at the highest levels of the government arena.’ It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish and the message  we wanted to convey was it’s all about the leadership – to utilise that power to make a difference to people’s lives, to change people’s lives, to promote mass participation and social inclusion and thereafter leave a sustainable legacy.

“I’ve been campaigning now for the best part of 25 years and I have a level of optimism today that I’ve never had. It’s not where you start in life, it’s where you finish. Everything is incremental and if I look back to how things were as a player growing up in that area and seeing the whole movement, seeing the whole evolution, there’s big challenges ahead but sometimes we can’t be complacent. You have to look back and say I’ve seen the progress but now we have to raise the bar and take it to the next level.”

Special thanks to Zohaib Rashid of Operation Black Vote and Desiballers.