About AFAR (All Fans Against Racism)

[Admin]

About Me.

I am a 53 year old male who comes from, as my name suggests, Liverpool. I am not just a Liverpool fan but a genuine football fan.

Why I have started this forum.

Over the last few months a lot has been said about racism on the football pitch (Terry/Ferdinad Suarez/Evra). While racism cannot be condoned in sport for any reason, nor should it be used by the media to hype up games or to incite fans into hatred. Instead I believe that all the media should take a more responsible approach and help fight racism in society. All the governing bodies of football have a duty to eradicate racism in the game, it's ok running campaigns to give racism the red card, but, they also have a moral duty to encourage people from all walks of life and ethnic backgrounds to take an active role in football e.g. coaching, management, directors etc. This could only be acheived, if the powers that be are put under pressure by society as whole, to do more at grass roots and invest more in the local communities to show people the oppurtunities are there for them, even if they cannot play football.
The Prime Minister has announced that he is to hold a series of meetings about racism in football, I believe this will not amount too much if there is not enough being done to solve racism in society or to educate society about racism.
I have no statistics or facts to say if racism in society is prevailant or not, but, common sense tells us it does happen. What can we do about stopping it? One voice in a crowd cannot be heard so therefore the more of us tell the authorities that enough is enough, then they would have no choice but to listen to us and act, the fans, media the F.A and now the politicians have made this a bigger issue than what has happened in football. Football cannot take the brunt for this cloud that hangs over it, but, it must be society as a whole that takes the blame for it and society is people just like you and me making our oppinions heard.