The Sheffield-based project Football Unites, Racism Divides (FURD) believes that football, as the world’s most popular game, can help bring people together – people from different backgrounds, to play, watch and enjoy the game, and to break down barriers created by ignorance or prejudice.

The partnership project has its origins in a small group of Sheffield United fans and youth workers who, in the early 1990s, began to voice their concerns around a number of issues connected with their local football club, including racism.

The partners are a unique mix of fans, both Sheffield professional football clubs, local City Council officers, county football association, youth and community groups, racial equality council, schools, church, police and community safety unit.

Julian Winter, Wednesday’s Community Manager, is a FURD trustee, and the organisation has taken a positive step in deciding to support anti-racist campaigns at all clubs in the region. FURD coaches have been training youngsters in Darnall since the summer of 2001. The team , known as the Owls Trust All-Stars, are made up mainly of Asian kids living in the Darnall area.

Central to the work of Football Unites, Racism Divides is the use of football as a gateway with young people, enabling the youth worker or teacher to talk with them about racism, first in football and other sports, then moving on to the wider society. The website (www.furd.org) includes on-line resources as well as a developing interactive section.

I remember a few seasons back being given food for thought by an article in a Wednesday fanzine. The contributor had reacted to the outbreak of “I’d rather be a Paki than a Blade” chanting with an excellent cartoon carrying the riposte “I’d rather be a Blade than a racist”.

To me, this was a very powerful and brave statement. When I thought about it, would I be prepared to give up the Blades if our support became nastily racist? Put another way, would I have enjoyed being a Leeds fan over the past three years, given that a couple of their heroes were accused of kicking an Asian student to within an inch of his life? Or how about if you were an anti-racist Lazio supporter and had to endure the racist songs and banners that are a part of life in the Stadio Olympica? Or a black supporter at any of these clubs?

Let’s face it. Every club has some racists amongst its following, from card carrying BNP members to respectable family enclosure types who mutter “black bastard” whilst sat next to their young son or daughter.

What really counts is the attitude of the rest of the supporters, and to a lesser extent, the club they support. The silence from club boardrooms can be deafening. In fact, at the majority of clubs where some action has been taken against the racists, it’s been through the efforts of committed anti-racist fans; for just like every club has racists, there are also thousands opposed to them.