Events

Plymouth Argyle FC

17 January 2007

Show Racism the Red Card's very first event with Plymouth FC was organised in conjunction with the club and Plymouth City Council. 60 young people were invited to Home Park, from local city schools and had the opportunity to tour the ground, before the main event began.

In attendance from Plymouth Argyle FC were Marcel Seip and Cherno Samba. Marcel is a former under-21 Dutch International who played for Heerenveen and joined Plymouth in August, as did Cherno Samba, who had spent the previous two seasons playing in Spain with Cadiz and Malaga. Two representatives from Plymouth City Council were also on the panel, Cllr Allan Weekes who is the Cabinet member for Social Care and Community Cohesion; and Bronwen Lacey who is Head of Childrens Services.

Completing the top table line-up was Gary Bennett who was representing SRTRC in addition to Sunil Patel and myself.

After short introductory speeches from Allan Weekes and Bronwen Lacey, we screened the latest Show Racism the Red Card film, which was well received by both the audience and panel. After this a very good Question and Answer session took place, the players and panel members answering some very well thought out questions from the audience. Thanks to Plymouth Argyle FC, Gary was able to choose his three favourite questions to receive a prize. The club had donated a signed shirt, ball and match tickets as prizes. After the Q&A, there was an opportunity to get autographs and photo opportunities with the players. Media coverage of the event was high, interviews taking place with BBC TV, 2 radio stations, the Club's TV station and an article appearing in the Plymouth Herald.

A big thank you is due to the club, in particular to Mark Rivers and the Community Team and Rick Cowdery for their organisational help before the event and on the day. Also to Plymouth City Council, especially Darin Halifax for his assistance in organising the event and to Allan Weekes and Bronwen Lacey for taking part on the day. Thanks also to Gary and Sunil for all their help on the day.