Show Racism the Red Card in Wales

Wales prizes giving ceremony at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

24 April 2007

The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff hosted the first ever Show Racism the Red Card Schools competition prize giving ceremony on Tuesday 24th April 2007.

The event was hosted by the head of BBC Wales Political unit Ashok Ahir with contributions from Wales Advisory Committee member Sanjiv Verdi who gave a brief background on the campaign work in Wales.

Wales Co-ordinator Sunil Patel announced the winners and runners up of the prizes and were handed out by special guest Nigel Walker, prizes included match tickets, signed footballs and the winners from each category getting an opportunity to meet the Welsh Football squad in the coming weeks ahead.

The guests were entertained by Richards Braithwaite also known as ‘Mr Silkyskills’ who had everyone enthralled with his freestyle football skills, some of the children also got involved during his routine and learnt some new skills to try out.

Footballers who attended the event included Warren Feeney from Cardiff City, Swansea City player Owain Tudor-Jones along with Gwennan Harris and Michelle Green from the Wales women’s football team.

All the children received goody bags that included the new Wales squad poster, SRTRC wrist bands, badges and magazines, the goody bags also had merchandise kindly provided by UNISON and the Football Association of Wales, their was also a stadium tour straight after the event.

The overall winner from Wales was Sophie Howard from Tongywnlais Primary School in Cardiff who will be travelling to London to meet Arsenal star Thierry Henry along with the national winner from Scotland and England.

One of the judges of the competition was Welsh former professional referee Clive Thomas who refereed 2 world cup finals, he said "I have given a number of red cards in my career, so it was a privilege to judge the Wales anti-racism schools competition 2007. I must compliment all young people who participated as the standard was exceptionally high and I congratulate the winners. We must all combat racism through all sports".

The FAW donated a signed Wales football shirt that was raffled at the end of the event with the winner coming from Cardiff High School.

We would like to thank all the schools and pupils who entered the competition, also the teaching unions, the judging panel, the clubs and the FAW for the prizes and our special guests.

Our campaign headed down to the east coast to Championship side Colchester United FC who hosted a Show Racism the Red Card event at Shrub End Community & Sports Centre.