Local sports author, Harry Harris will be on Talksport2 breakfast, April 29th 7.45 am, live from Sunningdale, to discuss his new book 'Red Card to Racism'

Is football doing enough to give racism the boot?  The global Black Lives Matter campaign has given greater exposure to the extent of the structural and systemic racism that exists in all strata of our society. It has provided renewed impetus to the urgent need to challenge and eradicate racism in all its forms and wherever it is found.

Sadly, sport has not been immune from this, especially so in the case of football.

For too long, there were attempts to hide and mitigate racist attitudes and actions within the game, but thanks to the growing profile and visibility of black and minority ethnic (BAME) players both past and present - Viv Anderson, Cyrille Regis, Jimmy Carter, Les Ferdinand, Pat Nevin and Ruud Gullit - to name just a few and almost three decades of education and campaigning led by Kick It Out, attitudes have changed.

However, there's still a great deal left to do.

Throughout his entire journalistic career, leading sportswriter Harry Harris has championed the fight against racism in football. Now, within these pages, he shines a timely spotlight on the Beautiful Game, revealing the forces within football that have both helped expose and challenge racism - and, at times, sadly, hinder more rapid positive change.

Includes exclusive commentary from Greg Dyke, Glenn Hoddle, Ivor Baddiel, Mek Stein, and Jermain Defoe.

‘Highly commendable and will keep the debate raging’ – John Barnes

Reviews:

 5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive detail

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 April 2021

Harry Harris gives a history of the Kick It Out group that combats racism in football and also describes how this has changed over time for players. Interviews have been done extensively with those part of Kick It Out, players who have suffered racial discrimination and also covers infamous high profile incidents of racism within the game.

This book has an impressive amount of detail with the range of interviews conducted. It also excels at covering the range of different viewpoints within football at combating racism. Even though things have improved this book shows that there is still a long, long way to go.

 

4.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 April 2021

Certainly a very enlightening book as a lot of the stuff, despite being an ardent football fan, I'd never heard of happening before. At the same time, as a football fan, it is sad to read that people are judging players not on their footballing ability but the colour of their skin. I was shocked to read about the alleged quotas in the England team.

CLICK on this link to see Harry Harris's book on the life of Diego Maradona, from a personal perspective