The Football Association has paid tribute to the Charlton Athletic Race and Equality Partnership (CARE) at a special event to mark its 20th anniversary.

CARE was founded in 1992 by the south London club and the Royal Borough of Greenwich and has worked tirelessly to tackle discrimination and promote inclusion. The gathered guests on Saturday afternoon included stakeholders from across the game as well as young people who have directly benefitted from CARE’s work

The keynote address at the Valley ahead of their game with Middlesbrough was given by Kick It Out Chairman Lord Ouseley while leading campaigner Paul Elliott - a former Addicks defender - also gave a passionate speech about how a collective, collaborative approach was the key to tackling discrimination.

Club England Managing Director Adrian Bevington had the honour of closing the afternoon’s proceedings, which were captured by the FATV cameras. 

In his speech, Bevington spoke out about the importance of CARE’s work, which is a leading voice on The FA’s own race equality advisory group. He said: “As indicated by the partnership approach behind CARE and the collective will within this room, we are better if we work together and unite in a common aim.

“The FA will of course continue to support Kick It Out and champion its superb record under Lord Ouseley in educating and engaging the public – particularly young people. Show Racism The Red Card has also done so much in this regard too.

“Prejudice and discrimination has no place in football, and society as a whole, in 2013. One incident is one too many.”

Bevington also focused on the need for more black and ethnic minority coaches, and cited The FA’s COACH bursary programme under Brendon Batson as a major initiative within the forthcoming 150th anniversary activity in 2013.

He added: “As a priority, we must encourage the importance of black and ethnic minority players taking coaching qualifications and inspire confidence in them that job opportunities will follow.

“The vision must be when we come to recruit England Managers in the future, there must be genuine black and ethnic minority candidates who are fully qualified and have strong CVs through being given opportunities to manage at the highest level in this country.”

He also reiterated The FA’s strong stance against homophobia, reminding that there needs to be a ‘so what?’ culture in the game to anyone who chooses to come out. There was also reference to the need to actively encourage more players, coaches and administrators from the Asian community.

In conclusion, he said: “These are all matters of priority for the year ahead, along with gender equality and disability equality, and for our future vision but I stress it is important to also celebrate the good in our game and those that are working hard every day for positive change.

“I would like to commend once more the Charlton Athletic Race & Equality Partnership.”

The FA Handbook 2011-12