LET’S SHOW THE WAY FORWARD
WE all thought we’d made progress since those dark and distant days when bananas were thrown at black players. Not so, it would seem, given the Spurs fan who launched a banana skin towards Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang last weekend. And if you wonder what that has got to do with the Non-League game, I would suggest you might be a little complacent about potential racism at our levels. Recently, an Eastleigh fan was convicted of directing racist abuse at the end of last season towards the Ebbsfleet United goalkeeper Nathan Ashmore, who was also verbally abused at Boreham Wood last month, though Wood deny it was racially motivated. That incident, which saw Ashmore leap into the crowd to protest, is now being investigated by the FA.
Spotlight
The encouraging thing about the Eastleigh episode is that fans around the offender reported him to the police, who took action in prosecuting, and the club acted decisively in banning him and condemning his behaviour. Fair play to all. My experience, though, is that there still remains an issue with black, Asian and minority ethnic people in the game. They need representation in positions of influence, that would erode further lingering racism, subconscious or overt.
Interviewing the Burton Albion chairman Ben Robinson recently for this paper, it occurred to me again just how few BAME people there are in board rooms. There has been progress in more being given managerial jobs, though still far from enough to be fair. The fuss over Sol Campbell getting the Macclesfield job – the club hoping that it won’t be back to the National League that he’s leading them – shows that the mere spotlight on them is unequal. It does seem that ethnicheritage managers have to succeed more than their white counterparts if they are to get more jobs. Real progress will come when they are allowed to be ordinary and to fail, and be considered again, without the same levels of discussion about their abilities as there are now. What might help that cause is an increase in the number of BAME people in executive roles inside clubs and indeed governing bodies and League boards.
Open-minded
Now, I accept that a lot of Non-League clubs represent rural or small town areas where there are either loW population, or even no, BAME communities. Where there are ethnic communities, however, it needs club administrations to be more open-minded and inclusive, and to work towards recruiting more BAME people in dug-outs, committes and board rooms to reflect the teams they are often putting out. Who knows, it might even draw more supporters from an often untapped market. Non-League can be traditional, even backward here and there. But it can also be bold and brave in some of its initiatives. This should be one of them.