As Kick It Out marked their 30th anniversary at Wembley this week, our Founder Paul and CEO Raphael celebrated the impact of their work tackling discrimination in football with an esteemed audience of guests, overlooking the national stadium’s hallowed turf.
The FA’s Paul Elliott opened the day’s proceedings by setting the scene, as one of the original founders of the organisation. Chair Sanjay Bhandari then drew attention to the significant impact the organisation has made, with CEO Tony Burnett highlighting how Kick It Out will face into the future. A panel of guests hosted by the enigmatic Anne-Marie Batson – including Anton Ferdinand and representatives from Stonewall, Sky & the PFA – then discussed the Kick it Out 30 Year Impact Report.
“Today’s Kick It Out 30th anniversary event showed me how strong aims and objectives can deliver real impact.
“Sanjay, Tony, Paul and their guests spoke strongly about discrimination, and really engaged us all in the room.
“What was clear is that bigger change can come about when all organisations begin to work together as a team and I hope those words come true”.
Paul Canoville, Founder
Set up in 1993, Kick It Out has delivered significant impact over the last three decades, including the successful introduction of a discrimination reporting mechanism through their dedicated mobile app. You can explore some of those related statistics here.
The positive change Kick it Out has supported has been captured in their 30 year impact report, which formed the basis of the event’s presentations.
And it wasn’t just a nostalgic look back, the future was where the focus was firmly fixed – including their efforts to bring together over 200 different reporting functions for discrimination and their support of the proposed Online Safety Bill.
“Today was a thought-provoking, stimulating and reflective event.
“Everyone involved in the organisation’s history – and the event itself – should be very proud.
“It was refreshing to see a panel that had not been cherry-picked to laud after the organisers, but with real debate, which highlighted the organisation’s maturity and transparency.
“I first worked with Kick it Out back in 2005 when they assisted with our anti-bigotry event and they have supported a number of our equality, equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives in the years since”.
Raphael Frascogna – CEO
Kick It Out reported that 73% of fans feel football has become more inclusive since they were formed in 1993, and even more believe there is plenty still to do, in order to reduce abuse in stadiums and online.
The Paul Canoville Foundation will continue to work alongside Kick it Out and our other partners to help achieve this, through education and community outreach.
