Clubs 'must do more to end racism'

Football clubs in Britain – particularly those in the lower divisions – need to do more to stamp out racism or face potential prosecution, it emerged today.

They also need to pay closer attention to the ethnicity of their workforce, according to the British race equality watchdog.

In a survey, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) questioned clubs across the Premier League, the Football League and the Football Association.

All bar one of the Premiership’s 20 clubs responded to the survey which asked about equal opportunities and what was being done to curb racism.

In the first division, 19 of the 24 clubs answered the survey, 16 of the 24 second division clubs took part and only 11 out of 24 responded from the third division.

Most clubs in the Premiership (90%), first division (79%) and second division (75%) had equal opportunity policies in place compared with just 45% of the third division.

When it came to employing staff, only six Premiership clubs and three first division clubs carried out ethnic monitoring of those who were hired.

None of the clubs in divisions two and three looked at ethnicity.

A spokesman from the CRE told The Guardian: “Most clubs do not even ethnically monitor staff so it shows that they are not taking the problem seriously.

“There are plenty of warm phrases and lip service being paid within the game towards racism but it’s not being backed up by formal, positive action.”

The CRE completed its survey in February and said it would be sending the results to the football governing bodies and other interested parties.

It has refused to rule out the use of legal action if clubs do not abide by new rules, but added: “We are not minded to use our formal powers at this stage.”

Piara Powar, a director of the football anti-racism campaign group Kick-It-Out, said there was much work to be done in response to the CRE report to work out a plan of action.

“The recommendations as they stand are quite weak,” he said.

“I think it is a process of recognising what has been done already and some of the drive that already exists.

“We need to set down the key targets. We have already made a number of submissions to the CRE and what needs to be developed is an action plan.”

Mr Powar said the CRE could flex its legal muscles to enforce change but added that there were other ways of working towards genuine equality.

“The key issue here is that the CRE does have statutory powers, or the threat of statutory powers, that gives them far more leverage to say to the industry we would like you to do x, y or z.”

“The danger is that this report comes so quickly after the Independent Football Commission’s report and people start to clam up and feel they are being criticised unfairly.

“We want to get people involved in a positive process – to do whatever they can to make changes.

“It is always about trying to bring about an environment where step change is accepted.

“Everyone knows there is a lot of progress to be made. Some parts of the industry are moving faster than others.”

A spokesman for the Premier League said: “The Premier League is at the forefront of co-ordinating best practice and implementing ideas for widening the game’s support among ethnic minorities through club-based community initiatives.”

He said the Premier League had an equal opportunities policy in place and was working hard to ensure all its clubs were “above reproach”.

The Football League said it had not yet received a copy of the report and was unable to comment.