Sol Campbell pledges support to Sporting Equals

MP's champion Sporting Equals work through pledging their support to increasing ethnic diversity in sport
 

On Thursday 12 March, over 120 people attended a high level reception to endorse the work of Sporting Equals at the House of Commons, welcoming a wide range of MPs, peers, member organisations, sports providers as well as grassroots and elite level performers.

Headline speakers endorsing the work of Sporting Equals at the event were Denise Lewis OBE, former Olympic Gold Medallist and Sol Campbell the former England International footballer and the only player to have represented England in six consecutive major tournaments.

Sporting Equals are the sports charity that exists to promote greater involvement in sport and physical activity by disadvantaged communities particularly the black and minority ethnic population.

Their research highlights that black and minority ethnic (BME) communities are seriously under-represented when it comes to the number of coaches (3%) and the number of people on the boards of governing bodies in sport (3%) and in participation some BME groups are also under represented for example only 18% of Muslim women participate in sport.

Arun Kang, CEO of Sporting Equals said, “Sporting Equals are honoured to be able to showcase our projects to MPs and Lords at the House of Commons. We have worked tirelessly in partnership with many organisations to develop models to increase participation in sport from BAME communities and we hope to replicate our projects more widely across the country to ensure more BAME communities get involved in sport or physical activity.”

Sol Campbell, speaking to the assembled audience said “The system has to be transparent and opened up. There's nothing wrong to be opened up and talking to someone you've never spoken to before and looking at your own background and thinking that your own mind-set should break that down and thinking 'why am I always choosing one type of person.

"It's all about opening up and allowing the colour to be washed away and people picking the people or managers who are good at their job and give people opportunities."