Latics back anti-racism campaign

OLDHAM Athletic will join teams around the country in a nationwide bid to kick racism out of football.

One Game, One Community, which runs until October 27, is designed to celebrate diversity and encourage inclusion at all levels of football.

All professional clubs will hold events and activities to support the initiative alongside schools, universities and youth centres.

Lord Herman Ouseley, chair and founder of Kick It Out, said: “The idea is that the coming together of clubs, fans and surrounding communities provides a focused, highly visible message of anti-discrimination. But over and above this it’s about helping clubs understand how crucial diversity is to our game and to maintain this mindset all year round.“

An educational day will be held at Boundary Park today for Year 9 pupils from Blue Coat, Breeze Hill, Counthill, Grange and Hathershaw.

The teenagers will tour the stadium and take part in speech writing workshops as well as creating a banner to promote diversity.

The pupils that produce the best banner will be invited to parade their winning design around the stadium at half time during Saturday’s home clash with Southampton.

From October 19-23, a Latics Community Trust roadshow offers activities at St Hilda’s, Holy Rosary, Freehold and Friezland primary schools. Youngsters will take part in a Kick It Out quiz as well as a mini world cup.

Latics first team player Kelvin Lomax will visit the roadshow to answer questions and the quiz winners will receive match tickets and a signed ball.

The Futsal Soccer School, on October 29 and 30 at Oldham Sports Centre, will see youngsters working towards a tournament as well as speech writing workshops, with the winners getting tickets for Latics clash with Huddersfield Town on November 1.

Oldham Athletic chief executive alan Hardy said: “Once again we are delighted to be promoting the Kick it Out week of action.

“This sees us kick off a range of activities and through the club and our community team we continue to promote equality and celebrate the diversity of the borough.

“While this campaign is important to football, as a club we must ensure that this area of work continues all year round so that racism and other forms of discrimination are not tolerated within Boundary Park and inequalities are removed from all communities in Oldham.”