Show Racism the Red Card nears milestone of educating a million people on racism

A North East charity set up to tackle racism in sport has neared an important milestone.

Show Racism the Red Card will soon celebrate seeing a million people pass through its educational workshops.

The organisation, which launched in 1996, expects to surpass the one million milestone in the next few weeks.

Children from Dame Dorothy Primary and Easington Primary schools attended an event at Sunderland's Beacon of Light, which included a panel of special guests to answer their questions.

The panel featured former players Gary Bennett MBE and Kevin Ball as well as current first-team members Ajibola Alese and Bailey Wright.

Kevin Ball, Gary Bennett MBE, Bailey Wright and Ajibola Alese took questions from children at the event on Wearside. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

Gary Bennett MBE said: "You look at every football team now, there's a group of players that come together on a Saturday to win three points.

"Also, if you look at how they are, the starting eleven, you'll have players of different colour, different race, different nationality.

"They're all coming together as one to win a game of football. It's a very important tool, I think it's something which gets the message across - what racism is all about."

The panel discussed how racism has changed in recent years as well examples of racism in the game, including the racial abuse suffered by Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka at Euro 2020.

Ged Grebby, Show Racism the Red Card's Chief Executive, said: "To have educated a million people is a staggering milestone.

"It's something we're really proud of. We know we're making an impact, we've done all the assessments of that but it's really important to also show the number of people we've worked with."

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