‘Everyone in the sector needed’ to help successfully drive racism out of sport

Everyone involved in sport and physical activity will need to play their part, if racism is to successfully be driven out of the sector.

That is the message from Sport England CEO, Tim Hollingsworth, who has admitted that there is still “much to do” to tackle the deep-rooted issues that impact many people’s experiences of playing sport and being physically active.

Speaking as part of a panel at the ‘Time for action: Tackling racism in sport’ conference on 1 March, Hollingsworth said: “As leaders we need to be more vocal on this topic.

“It’s easy to say that we’ve launched an ED&I (equality, diversity and inclusion) strategy, hired the right people and funded the right programmes and think ‘that’s my job done’.

“But that’s the approach of a boss. A leader cannot stay silent on this issue.

Held at the Mattioli Woods Welford Road stadium, home of the Premiership Rugby team Leicester Tigers, and live streamed for those unable to attend in person, the event brought people together from across the sector to drive forward the sector’s anti-racism work.

Building on the Tackling Racism and Racial Inequalities in Sport webinar held in October, the event gave delegates the chance to explore in detail three themes that had been identified for discussion:

• Being bold and acting without fear
• Gaining buy in from senior leaders and staff
• Diversifying talent in all areas of our organisations.
• Speakers included all five home nation sports council CEOs, former Sport England board member Chris Grant and diversity, equity and inclusion campaigner Hayley Bennett.

Attendees also had the opportunity to take part in a number of workshops focussing on a wide range of topics.

Hollingsworth added: “We have a strong focus on tackling inequalities, but we also need to maintain a direct focus and be much better at talking directly about tackling racism.

“Yes, we can confidently talk about change that we’ve made as an organisation over the last four years, but the change that is now needed, that will make a real difference, concerns the collective work of our sector.

“What is required is a systemic approach and, to enable us to influence that, we need to ensure we’re listening to the right people and have the right people in the room.”