About

Unfortunately, our society, but also football fields and stadiums are still too often subject to racist or homophobic incidents. We often hear about incidents in professional football. However, research by Kick It Out! reveals that the numbers of racist or discriminatory incidents at local grassroots clubs are even higher and growing every year. This is not okay. It is time we show racism the red card in grassroots clubs.

Therefore, our Red Card campaign in stadiums is rolled out to grassroots clubs. The goal of our campaign is to reach about 20,000 players and 450 coaches. In order to reach as many people as possible and make an impact, we need your help!

Red Card campaign for professional clubs

One way we try to raise awareness is by showing racism the red card in the most literal way. Grassroots clubs can request our red card – or download the card on our website – in their desired language. After the clubs have received or printed their cards, they can take pictures with their men’s, women’s and/or youth teams and share the pictures of their team showing racism the red card. In today’s society it is important that we call out unacceptable language, take a stand and pledge to do better ourselves.

Additionally, professional clubs can deliver a game-day campaign, where both teams show the Red Card before kick-off, or fans can hold up the red card when both teams enter the field. For a game-day campaign, we have banners and LED boarding advertisement available. Previously, S.B.V. Excelsior Rotterdam has done a game-day campaign with fans and both in the Belgian Pro League and the Scottish Premiership game-day campaigns at kick-off have been delivered.

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Grassroots campaign

The grassroots campaign consists of the red card campaign, but also disseminates educational materials and resources to the grassroots clubs. We have designed a toolkit focused on anti-racism and anti-discrimination. In this toolkit, clubs will find information on how to create an inclusive environment at their clubs, how to prevent discriminatory incidents and how to react to such incidents. The toolkit is designed for coaches, but can also be used by club officials, as it includes information, resources and a checklist on how to set up an anti-discrimination policy.

Show Racism the Red Card will also encourage the creation of anti-discrimination policies in grassroots clubs across Europe, and disseminate educational materials and resources to those clubs. Besides the forementioned toolkit, in which coaches of the grassroots clubs will find information about racism and other forms of discrimination, we have created a template for an anti-discrimination policy, and informational posters that can be hung in the facilities of your grassroots clubs.

With the help of the toolkit, coaches and club officials are encouraged to educate themselves on how to create making an inclusive environment and being a role model for children and teenagers that they coach. The toolkit includes as glossary explaining different gender identities, sexual orientations and concepts such as anti-semintism, islamophobia, homophobia and transphobia.

• Grassroots toolkit (available soon)
• Template anti-discrimination policy (available soon)
• posters for grassroots clubs (available soon)
• Create your own poster
• Red Cards

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