Events

Oldham Athletic FC

20 September 2007

Show Racism the Red Card returned to Boundary Park for our second ever event with the club and our third event in three days. Around 60 young people from two local primary schools filled 'The Corner Flag' suite at the ground, to view the SRtRC DVD and take part in a Q&A session with two players from the football club. This event received some good press coverage from Oldham Athletic's own website and from two local newspapers: The Oldham Advertiser and The Oldham Chronicle.

The Oldham Athletic FC players who attended and took part in the event were Chris Taylor and Ryan Bertrand. Both players were able to answer the questions from the young people very well and we were grateful for their attendance. Ryan is on loan at OAFC from Chelsea FC and has played for the England under 19s team. The panel was completed by Alan Hardy, OAFC's Chief Executive, Cllr Jean Stretton who is Oldham Council's Cabinet Member for Community Cohesion, Tariq from Oldham Race Equality Partnership and Gary Bennett from SRtRC. On arrival the young people received some juice and a SRtRC goody bag, before Cllr Jean Stretton said some words of welcome and support. The screening of the SRtRC film then followed, which helped to encourage some good questions from the young people in the Q&A that followed. All of the panel were able to help with the Q&A session and I think the young people enjoyed hearing the responses. Show Racism the Red Card had provided three T-Shirts, which Ryan and Chris signed and Oldham Athletic had also provided an OAFC mug as a prize. Gary picked his favourite three questions and photos were taken of the winners with the players. All of the young people were then able to gather the players' autographs before the end of the event.

Many thanks go to Oldham Athletic FC for hosting the event and to Alan Hardy and Janet for their part in organising the event on the day and the players for their attendance. Thanks also to Cllr Stretton and Tariq for taking part in the event and their support of the campaign, thanks also to Tariq for bringing 'No Place for Racism in Oldham' badges with him for the young people. SRtRC would also like to thank the schools who attended and the young people for taking part.