Kick It Out ‘needs funding doubled to tackle racism’
Campaigner Townsend demands faster action Fan apologises for abuse aimed at City’s Sterling
Football’s elite was accused of hiding from racism last night as campaign group Kick It Out said it may need its funding doubled to tackle surging volumes of prejudice after Raheem Sterling was abused at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
The fan accused of abusing Sterling was last night identified and apologised for his actions while denying the insults were racist in nature. Sterling is thought to have told police he did hear a racist slur.
But Troy Townsend, the anti-racism campaigner, said black players from the grass roots to the top tier felt let down by predominantly white boardrooms at clubs and governing bodies who have failed to speak out after alleged racism against Sterling, of Manchester City, and Arsenal’s Pierre-emerick Aubameyang.
Yesterday, Chelsea announced they had suspended four people from attending their matches, pending further investigations. That included the fan who was thought to have subjected Sterling to the worst abuse, with the individual interviewed by the club ahead of a likely grilling by Scotland Yard. Last night the fan was identified as Colin Wing, 60, from Beckenham.
“I’m deeply ashamed by my own behaviour and I feel really bad,” he told Mailonline. “But I didn’t call him a black ----, I called him a Manc c--- I want to apologise unreservedly to Raheem and hope he can be a better man than I am by accepting it. I offer him an unreserved apology. Even if it wasn’t racist, it’s not right what I said. Even the swearing is bad – but I got carried away.
“I was completely out of order, but I’ve lost my job and my season ticket now so everybody’s got what they wanted. So why can’t they leave me alone?”
The incident has ignited a debate over racism and in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Townsend criticised the lack of diversity in the Premier League and FA boardrooms. Campaign group founder Lord Ouseley also called out Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore and Greg Clarke, the FA chairman, for failing to personally condemn recent incidents. “The problem with our game is leadership,” Townsend, speaking before Wing made his comments, said. “There are players who feel let down.”
Yesterday the Professional Footballers’ Association called for clubs to take strong action to tackle racism from fans and echoed Sterling’s statement that imbalanced media coverage of young black players was fuelling racist abuse.
However, Townsend, education manager for Kick It Out, indicated the response had been too slow. “We are getting to old news by the time these organisations are coming out,” he said.
“You have to act fast and you have to act strong. You have to make sure you are advocating change, and I’m not seeing that. The game is always slow and cautious to respond. We might hear there are things going on behind the scenes, but we want to hear there is action immediately.
“I appreciate and understand that there are police investigations going on, but there is nothing to stop well-known figures in authority coming forward, like Herman [Lord Ouseley] did, to say how disgraceful those scenes were, and, indeed, praising Sterling for the way he handled the situation.”
Last night, the Metropolitan Police said they were continuing to gather evidence from Chelsea and Manchester City before deciding whether a crime had been committed.
Kick It Out has previously disclosed it receives about £650,000 annual core funding from the FA, Premier League and Football League, and has 14 full-time staff.
“Doubling our funding would leave us in a really good place,” Townsend said. “We punch above our weight but if we bring the money to the right level we can become more relevant to the entire game.”
Meanwhile, former England international John Barnes said he believed ethnic minorities would not have been surprised by the abuse suffered by Sterling.
“When people talk about, ‘Oh, isn’t that terrible what happened to Raheem Sterling?’, you speak to black people in inner cities and they say, ‘This is what we go through every day’,” Barnes told BBC One’s Breakfast programme.
An FA spokesman said: “We take all allegations of discrimination extremely seriously and will work with the clubs and the relevant authorities to ensure this matter is dealt with appropriately. We strongly condemn all forms of discrimination and encourage all fans and participants who believe that they have been the subject of, or witness to, discriminatory abuse to report it through the appropriate channels: the FA, our County FAS or our partners Kick It Out.”