Football’s anti-discrimination group Kick It Out has launched a major exercise to tackle abuse at grass-roots level.
According to The Guardian, the campaign will see a three-month consultation exercise with players, coaches, parents and referees about their experiences of discrimination in grass-roots football, and about the reporting process for cases and how incidents are handled.
The new initiative comes after Kick It Out last month announced a 35 per cent increase in all reports of discrimination in professional football received at the halfway point of the current season.
The number of complaints raised at grass-roots level has remained relatively low however.
Roisin Wood, director of Kick It Out, said: “We are delighted to be launching our grass-roots consultation.
“It is important that people are aware of discrimination and its effects across all levels of the game and this consultation will help us better deliver our messages of equality and inclusion.
“We want to get a greater understanding of how Kick It Out can interact with the hundreds of thousands of people who give up their time to get involved with football at the grass-roots level and help remove discrimination from the game.”
Kick It Out is also looking for volunteers to take part in a three-month pilot scheme at grass-roots level in Birmingham, Essex and West Yorkshire from August.