Let's talk about the ugly truth of racism in football – join us online on June 27 at 6.00PM!
As part of our Black History Year event programme, we'd like to welcome you to join us for Racism in the Beautiful Game.
At this event, we’ll be joined by Marcus Gayle and Kadeem Simmonds to talk about racism in football. Marcus is a former professional footballer and current Club Ambassador at Premiere League club Brentford FC and Kadeem is a sport journalist who was the first Black person to be Sports Editor of a daily national newspaper.
In conversation, they’ll offer us their unique perspectives on how racism has affected ‘the beautiful game’ and what work football’s clubs and its organisational structures are doing and should be doing, to combat racism in the present.
This free event is open to all.
Speakers
Marcus Gayle, Club Ambassador & Lead Educator, Brentford Hall of Fame 2015
Marcus is Brentford Football Club's first-ever Ambassador. This role involves Player education and support and local schools Anti- Discrimination workshops. He is also responsible for inviting back former players to the club as Legends. Marcus's career started as a Brentford schoolboy and progressed through the youth set-up and into the senior team, making him the 16th Black player to make a debut for the club back in 1988. Nearly 200 matches played for Brentford before being transferred to Premier league Wimbledon in 1994. Marcus represented Jamaica in the 1998 France World Cup. A career totalling over 700 matches and over 100 goals for Wimbledon, Glasgow Rangers, Watford and of course Brentford.
Kadeem Simmonds
Kadeem has been an editor and journalist for a decade, first starting out at the Morning Star newspaper, where he became the UK's first black sports editor of a daily national newspaper. Since then, he has worked for titles including the Daily Mirror, Liverpool Echo and Manchester Evening news before transitioning to writing about the gambling industry. In his spare time, Kadeem co-hosts a successful YouTube show and audio podcast on the Miami Dolphins called Go Time Dolphins.
