For Machel St Patrick Hewitt, non-league football is a place where he has been part of a beautiful and unique community for many years. Yet, with its apparently generous embrace, there has always been the sense of being an outsider. Here, in a guest essay, he examines why.
Read MoreWith Harry Maguire facing scrutiny for his alleged misconduct while on holiday in Greece, Ahmed Shooble considers how differently the British media might have covered the story if the player in question was not Maguire but Paul Pogba; and, more generally, he examines the double standard by which wealthy black footballers are often judged in the UK.
Read MoreFor black lives truly to matter in football, notes Kunle Ajao, words must be accompanied by action. On examining Leeds United's treatment of Kiko Casilla following his racial abuse of Jonathan Leko, Kunle shares his concern that - in the sport that he loves - Black Lives Matter risks becoming an empty phrase.
Read MoreIn July, the German publication Sport Bild gave Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and TSG Hoffenheim owner Dietmar Hopp their “Gesture of the Year” award for “standing side by side against hate”. Rummenigge and Hopp were standing up against the Bayern ultras who were protesting against Hopp’s for his three-year ban of Borussia Dortmund’s fans from TSG Hoffenheim’s ground. The award was met with widespread ridicule, given that it was made at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, when black footballers around the world were making gestures of a far greater scale and significance. Jonathan Harding, the football writer, broadcaster and author of the brilliant Mensch: Beyond The Cones, addresses this award below in his “Ode to Gestures”.
Read MoreIn making a stand - or, more accurately, by taking a knee - against institutiuonal racism, Marcus Thuram made a gesture of which his father Lilian must surely be proud. Musa Okwonga examines some of the wider implications of Thuram's moment of on-field activism.
Read MoreRacism isn’t something you can easily kick out of football, or indeed from wider society. That’s why George Weah was so important: he taught Musa Okwonga and countless others how to proceed despite it.
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