Council withdraws football racism charity backing

A black former footballer, who suffered racial abuse during his career, said a council's decision to withdraw support for the game's anti-racism charity was a "massive step back".

Gary Bennett, who played for Sunderland from 1984 to 1995, said he was "in shock" after learning the city's Reform-led council was ending a 30-year partnership with Show Racism the Red Card.

Council leader Chris Eynon said the authority would not support "politically charged organisations with an agenda" and accused charity chief executive Ged Grebby of "stark political bias" in comments about Reform.

Grebby defended his right to express personal views and said the charity had support across the political spectrum.

Eynon confirmed the decision to end formal association with the organisation during a council meeting last week.

The charity, set up in part thanks to support from former Newcastle United goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, is preparing to host its regular Wear Red Day next month, which usually sees local landmarks lit up in red.

Bennett said the charity had made a difference to attitudes about those from different backgrounds over the years, especially in Sunderland.

"It's seen in the football team," he said. "You have near enough over 12 different nationalities playing for the football club... 20 or 30 years ago you wouldn't have had this conversation."

He said that he hoped the council would relent and "come to some sort of agreement".

But Eynon told the BBC the authority did not need an affiliation with the charity "in order to oppose racism".

He said the decision should not be seen "as the council stepping back from its opposition to racism or discrimination".

"Racism has no place in Sunderland and the council will continue to treat all residents fairly and challenge discrimination wherever it occurs," he said.

"The issue is specifically whether Sunderland City Council should maintain a formal association with, financially support and publicly endorse, the campaigns of a particular external organisation."

He claimed the charity had "increasingly become involved in activity" beyond anti-racism education and took issue with Grebby describing Reform UK as "very, very dangerous organisation".

But he said the council was not preventing the charity from campaigning and it "remains entirely free to work with schools, businesses, Sunderland AFC and anybody else who wishes to support it".

Grebby said he had not been told about the decision in advance and only found out after footage of the council meeting was posted online.

"I'm really disappointed," he told the BBC.

"We've had 30 years of support from Sunderland City Council.

"They were the first council to fund our work and they helped fund Gary to go into schools as one of our first education workers in the region."

He claimed the decision would impact future funding on Wearside as the council previously paid to support its work to educate children and young people.

He said: "I'm presuming the council are anti-racist but their actions aren't anti-racist.

"We want to see what they're doing to fight racism in this city."

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