Anton Ferdinand backs campaign to tackle discrimination at grassroots level

Anton Ferdinand believes discrimination remains the biggest problem in football, but has backed a new campaign by London FA to tackle the issue at grassroots level to make a difference.

The London FA launched their London Football Positive Parent Behaviour Charter on Thursday.

Research by London FA discovered team disciplinary fines across their 5,600 sides have this season increased by 10 per cent and revealed grassroots players begin to display bad learned behaviours from the age of 11.

With poor behaviour defined as verbal abuse to officials and opponents, aggressive play, discrimination and poor sportsmanship on the rise, ex-West Ham defender Ferdinand has thrown his weight behind London FA’s campaign after his own battle during his career.

Ferdinand was involved in a high-profile court case with former England captain John Terry after he alleged the Chelsea defender used racist language against him in a Premier League match.

Asked if discrimination remained football’s biggest issue, Ferdinand told the PA news agency: “Yeah, 100 per cent.

“For a long, long time all forms of discrimination, including racism, has been top of the chart in terms of stuff that needs to be and wants to be eradicated from football by the powers that be, but we’re still fighting a battle and it doesn’t seem to be getting better.

“As much as it might be better from the terraces now, social-media is a massive problem and as we’ve seen over the last few years, there has been quite a few player-on-player incidents.

“So, that tells you something is wrong somewhere but we will continue to fight the good fight and try to bring positive change to the sport we love so much.

“It is very hard to call things out, but with campaigns like this by the London FA, it only gives kids and parents and guardians that support system and network to be able to feel comfortable to call things out.

“That is what it is about. Educating people and other members of your team to know what an ally looks like and how they should conduct themselves is really important as well. This is all part of the education for the next generation.”

A key feature of London FA’s campaign to eradicate poor behaviour in grassroots football is centred around a 10-point charter which aims to give parents and guardians clarity over their own potential actions on the sideline.

“The fact at the age of 11 it is starting to get really, really bad is something that jumped out at me,” Ferdinand explained.

“It is something that is close to me because my eldest son is 11, I have a daughter that is eight and a son that is three so I am still going through those stages now.

“Them 10 bullet points that parents have got now in terms of guidelines to help them and make them understand. It gives them no grey area to go, ‘I didn’t understand or I didn’t know what I was allowed or wasn’t to say,’

“There is 10 bullet points now that can point them in the right direction and there is no way out now for them to say they didn’t know this or that.

“It is alarming these numbers are going up every year, but the fact London FA are being bold and tackling it in the way they are is a positive.”