The FA held their third Football for All conference.
A chance for everyone
By Mark Whittle. Friday, 02 December 2005.
A prominent and diverse collection of football figures met on Thursday morning at The FA's third Football For All conference at Walsall FC.
Alongside William Gaillard - who flew in fresh from the EU in Brussels - was Chris Ramsay, England's first ever black coach, and Lisa Rashid - an 18-year-old referee who has ambitions one day to take charge of an FA Premier League match.
Other guests that elicited a big response were Imam Said Ahmed and Imam Elyas Desai - two senior members of the Muslim community in Preston.
Both Imams were eloquent and animated in their explanations of what it means to their community to take part in football.
They tackled a number of subjects from how Islam encourages followers to take part in all sports to how the faith deals with the social aspects of the game - provoking both warm-hearted applause and thought-provoking questions.
The guests were joined by FA director of corporate affairs Simon Johnson and head of football development Kelly Simmons, who both talked about progress and challenges facing The FA.
Said Kelly: "There are 12,900 young people taking part in the School Club Programme - 1,037 of which come from ethnic minorities. 2,700 clubs are part of the Charter Standard and 20 per cent of those are in deprived areas.
"40,000 young ladies take part in the Sports Girls Programme and eight per cent of those are from ethnic minorities. And we have 28,000 coaches at Level 1 standard with 26 per cent of those coming from minority groups."
Ethics and sport equity manager Lucy Faulkner and Shriti Patel (member of The FA's Race Equality Advisory Group) took questions from the floor.
The event was chaired by TV presenter Robbie Earle who is homorary patron for Show Racism the Red Card.
Gaillard made a flying visit but had chance to answer audience questions on a number of issues.
"Europe is very large and there is a wide gap in attitudes to equality between the different states," he said.
"England now talks about positive discrimination and are much more advanced compared to some countries that are still in denial of racism - some European politicians still argue in favour of discrimination. This shows the gaps UEFA has to deal with amongst its 52 members."
Young referee Lisa Rashid gave an insight into how she has made her way through the ranks and said she didn't see herself as a role model, although members of the panel begged to differ!
Lisa was asked whether her backgound - she is part Asian - or gender have been the biggest obstacle to her love of officiating.
"The biggest problem is being female", said Lisa. "There is a perception from some 'old school' managers who may not understand the updated laws of the game themselves.
"I've officiated the game for four seasons now and passed all the same criteria that the lads have!"
Click on the links below to watch videos highlighting the issues discussed at the Football for All Conference.