Bloomsbury Football, a Kick It Out Equality Chartered Club

Bloomsbury Football is delighted to officially announce ourselves as a Kick It Out Equality Chartered Club.

This means that we follow inclusive practices and campaign for positive change around racism and discrimination, and it brings us immense pride to be recognised by an organisation as veracious, sincere, selfless, and impactful, as Kick It Out.

Kick It Out are English football’s equality and inclusion organisation and have been at the heart of the fight against discrimination working throughout the football, educational and community sectors since their establishing as a body in 1997. They are primarily a campaigning organisation which enables, facilitates and works with the football authorities, professional clubs, players, fans and communities to tackle all forms of discrimination, and their campaigns have been pivotal in persuading and supporting the game’s stakeholders to take their equality responsibilities seriously.

But never in their entire existence have they experienced a year where their relevance has been so greatly emphasised. 2020 surfaced far too many abhorrent blemishes in society, and whilst we are all so merciful to see the back of 2020, its importance mustn’t be understated. It was the year that we really began to talk about racism, and finally understood the need to allow men and women of colour to lead that conversation. It will go down as a pivotal year, a year that planted the seeds for eventual change. However, it is also important to note that racism is not the singular form of discrimination: age, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, religion and belief, and disability.  

It has lead Kick It Out to unveil their new three-year strategy, which will run until 2024, as part of their ambition to “drive positive and inclusive change in football”. It involves an update of their programme delivery, which will now fall under three key pillars: ‘advocacy and reporting’, in which Kick It Out will be an advocate for change and will campaign around key issues such as Online Hate, the setting of diversity targets in coaching and senior leadership (the Football Leadership Diversity Code) and action-oriented campaigns to turn bystanders into activists (the Take A Stand campaign), as well as increasing and expanding the transparency of their reporting. The second pillar, ‘guidance and education’; they want to create understanding by improving their education programmes which presently include the training of academy members from ages nine upwards and parents, supporting clubs on their inclusion best practices, and providing rehabilitative education for fans guilty of discriminatory conduct. The final pillar, ‘talent’. Kick It Out want to inspire opportunity and have used the pandemic to their advantage by bringing together key football stakeholders to reimagine a set of connected programmes across the entire career lifecycle to support under-represented minority communities, transforming the way that they get in and progress in the football industry.

And we’re glad to stand shoulder to shoulder with Kick It Out on their mission, echoing the same within our own incredible organisation. Where social cohesion - uniting a divided landscape, and bringing together different socio-economic backgrounds, through football - is what we strive for, so that football can be a sport where people flourish in a supportive community, and where fairness is openly and transparently practised and enforced for the good of all participants.

The ‘beautiful game’ is not beautiful because of the aesthetic mastery it can conjure on the pitch, but because of its incontestable superpower in which it connects those in the stands. Football doesn’t conform to any one colour, faith, gender or sex. It is not exclusive.

It is inclusive. Inclusive for everybody no matter who you are. Whether you are black, white, Asian, male, female, old, young, homosexual, Buddhist or Jewish. There is no criteria. We are all equal.

Which is why we are committed to ensuring a safe environment for all participants by applying equality, diversity and inclusion in our day-to-day operations. Why we will continue to promote awareness of the benefits of equality, inclusion and diversity with a clear understanding that football belongs to and should be enjoyed by anyone who wants to participate in it. Which is why we will not tolerate harassment, bullying, abuse or victimisation of any kind and will assure the correct reporting procedures are actioned if any of the aforementioned does occur under our supervision. We are committed to taking action where inequalities exist. We will take a stance assuring good practice is encouraged internally and to our sponsors, partners and the wider community.

We are committed to eradicating and exterminating any and all that plagues the beautiful game.

We can all do more. And we can all do better. And we will continue to fight social injustice, until the final whistle.