Evaluating Football
For All
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j.bell@conflictresearch.org.uk
www.conflictresearch.org.uk
March 2010
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1. Background and objectives of the project
Football for All has been running as an Irish Football Association campaign since 2000. The
initiative stemmed from a number of appalling sectarian incidents in and around Northern
Ireland home internationals at Windsor Park. From the outset the campaign has been
spearheaded and inspired by Michael Boyd, whose current title is head of the Community
Relations Department. It has been delivered throughout in partnership with the
Amalgamation of Official Northern Ireland Supporters Clubs (AONISC), the number of
whose affiliates has increased exponentially in the intervening decade from 11 at the outset
to around 75 today.
A 2005 evaluation by one of the authors found that the campaign had been remarkably
effective in transforming the atmosphere at international games.1 (An executive summary of
the 2005 evaluation is attached at Appendix 1.) It brought to light the critical role in that
success of the partnership with the organised and mobilised Northern Ireland fans. Based on
the evidence of interviews and focus groups, the evaluation recommended cascading the
campaign down to the Irish Premier League, in the context of its integration into the
association around that time, and the constitution of a community-relations unit with the
IFA.
The report led to the appointment of Colleen Macauley in 2006 as community-relations
officer, focusing on work with the senior clubs, within a new Community Relations
Department. This was backed by further research by the Institute for Conflict Research
published in 2007, showing that sectarianism, racism and crowd trouble were not isolated
incidents in Premiership football. Over and above compliance with the UEFA 10-point plan,
the report addressed sectarian songs and chants and displays of flags, the policies clubs
should adopt in response and how stewards should enforce them.2
Football for All has not just been an anti-sectarian campaign, central as that message has
been. It has also been related to the efforts of IFA staff to promote women’s and disability
football and, in particular, has supported since the outset the engagement and empowerment
of migrant and refugee players via the World United team. Both the authors evaluated the
WU project in 2007 and they made recommendations for its formalisation and development
which have subsequently been effected.3
Football for All has been given sustained support by the European Union PEACE
programme, and it is as a requirement of PEACE III support that this evaluation has been
Robin Wilson (2005), ‘Football for All: a baseline study’ (Belfast: IFA,
www.irishfa.com/filestore/documents/Football_For_All_doc.pdf)
2 Neil Jarman (2007), ‘Responding to the UEFA Ten Point Plan: sectarianism, racism and football in Northern
Ireland’, Belfast: Institute for Conflict Research)
3 John Bell and Robin Wilson (2007), ‘World United, football and integration’ (paper commissioned by the
IFA).
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conducted. (The methodology, based on interviews and focus groups, is elaborated at
Appendix 2.) But the value of any evaluation is not merely to comply with funders’
requirements, important though that is, but to learn lessons for the future. That is the best
guarantee that Football for All will sustain the momentum of the last decade into the next.
2. Activities
A wide range of activities have been carried out under the banner of Football for All, and
the report by the Community Relations Department on activities during 2009 shows no
lessening of that activism—now assisted by an additional member of staff dealing with
finance and administration, Maria Wilson, as well as voluntary input on marketing and design
by Louise Eakin.
Key moments during that calendar year are worth highlighting, as a barometer of sustained
pressure:

an advisory panel for the campaign, which had met fitfully before, was reconstituted
on a broader footing during 2009, chaired by the leading activist from the AONISC
Jim Rainey, with good involvement by other members of the IFA senior
management team (including the chief executive) and with the engagement of key
external stakeholders;

a ‘Love Football, Hate Bigotry’ billboard and poster campaign was launched at the
home World Cup qualifier against Poland (sadly disfigured by clashes outside the
stadium), which refreshed the public-awareness message of Football for All and
made a neat link to what is now Northern Ireland’s largest minority community;

a DVD telling the story of the ‘Green and White Army’ of Northern Ireland fans
allowed a re-launch of the campaign, highlighting the transformation the supporters
had brought about as well as providing an engaging audio-visual tool to promote it;

a domestic club licensing manual was issued by the IFA, which required all Irish
Premier League clubs to have an anti-racist / anti-sectarian policy and a communityrelations liaison officer, this in turn underpinning an Interagency Forum to bring the
officers together to discuss practice issues;

a conference on stewarding addressed a key aspect of Football for All for Irish
League clubs—policing behaviour (ideally through self-policing by fans) as well as
changing attitudes;
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
March 2009 saw the pilot of an Ambassadors Project with Glentoran and the PSNI,
where 20 16-year-old old schoolchildren benefited from Football For All goodrelations workshops over four weeks, working in partnership with PSNI cadets;

a Football for All Anti-Bullying Poetry and Drawing Competition was delivered in
partnership with Mencap, which involved 90 primary schools;

anti-sectarian, anti-racist and anti-bullying workshops continued with a range of
agencies and organisations, including local schools across Northern Ireland—a new
training DVD to help deliver interactive FFA celebrating-diversity workshops was
developed in November 2009;

the IFA Community Relations Department established the first Football for All
Youth Forum in Lisburn, with support from Lisburn Borough Council;

work continued with the Chinese Football Association Northern Ireland, including
joint participation in the Unite Against Hate Unity Cup in August 2009, and work
was also carried out with a local Russian community group, to increase linkages with
the growing Russian community in Northern Ireland;

the Football for All team worked in partnership with the GAA to support the launch
of the West Belfast Festival;

the FFA team also worked with the IFA Disability Team and the IFA charity partner
Positive Futures to deliver disability-awareness training to all IFA staff;

there were further workshops on anti-racism, anti-sectarianism and diversity with
young people from Catholic areas who might have looked to the Republic of Ireland
rather than Northern Ireland in terms of football support;4

the annual Football for All awards event was a big ‘football family’ event in Belfast
City Hall, which sent out important messages by giving a Football for All Legend
award to the Belfast Celtic veteran Jimmy Jones and by recognising the pioneering
work by Mark Langhammer at Crusaders.
During 2009, the Community Relations Department also engaged in much less visible work
at grassroots level, in schools and communities, as well as pursuing international contacts. It
continued to support World United, which has been formally organised as an association
and has secured funding in its own right. The department has also continued to deliver the
Football for All message indirectly through the work of other IFA departments, via coach
education and grassroots development, to very large numbers of key interlocutors on the
ground, as well as working with the IFA’s referee team on the ‘Respect’ campaign.
A workshop was also held in February 2010 with young offenders, which obviously relates to a very
marginalised group.
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3. Impact
As was the case with the 2005 evaluation, individuals who were interviewed on this occasion
gave an overwhelmingly positive assessment of the work of the Community Relations
Department, while recognising the different conditions in the Irish League, compared with
the international level.5 In this regard, the task of ‘cascading down’ the impact of Football
for All was viewed as very difficult, given the many fewer fans attending Irish League
matches and so the challenge of creating the ‘critical mass’ necessary to change fan
behaviour.
Nevertheless, Aruna Djalo of World United described the IFA community-relations team as
‘awesome’ and welcomed the continued support which the department had given to World
United, while Jim Roddy of Derry City complimented Michael Boyd at its head, suggesting
that individually Michael’s contribution had been ‘immense’. Mark Langhammer of
Crusaders noted that the fact that Boyd was an ‘enthusiastic guy’ had brought people with
him and praise was also issued in support of the work of Colleen in attempting to work with
the Irish League clubs.
More broadly, Duncan Morrow of the Community Relations Council argued that Football
for All had provided the IFA with a ‘survival ticket’, at a time when the Northern Ireland
team had become a ‘laughing stock’. It had created a ‘brand’ around Northern Ireland
football, which related to the change in the team’s fortunes and Michael’s initial work had
turned a post into a ‘project’ and this was ‘leading-edge’, which was a model for other
organisations in the region and had secured international recognition: ‘When the history of
the IFA is written it will have to say this was a potential watershed.’
Two of the key figures responsible at a fan level, Jim Rainey and Stewart McAfee of the
AONISC, believed that Football For All was now ‘in the psyche’ of Northern Ireland fans
and was ‘quite preciously guarded’. In 2000 it had been deemed acceptable to sing sectarian
songs—‘It was just seen as the norm in those days: that’s what you did when you went to a
football match’—with deterrent effects on sponsors as well as spectators. Yet now individual
fans they knew who in the past would have engaged in sectarian singing would challenge
others if they did the same.
An index of change to which Rainey and McAfee pointed was that whereas Neil Lennon had
been booed every time he touched the ball in a 4-0 home defeat by Norway in 2001, his
contemporary Celtic counterpart Niall McGinn had been ‘cheered to the rafters’ in the
recent game against Serbia. McGinn himself has described the fans as ‘brilliant’ and ‘100 per
cent behind me’.6 Northern Ireland line-ups now regularly comprise players from both sides
It should also be noted that a positive view of the Community Relations Department does not necessarily
mean a positive view of the IFA as an organisation.
6 ‘McGinn blown away by Northern Ireland fans’, Belfast Telegraph, November 11th 2009.
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of the Old Firm, another fact which was felt to have been ‘pretty unlikely’ a number of years
ago.
In the context of the shift of emphasis to senior clubs, club licensing looms large. The head
of club licensing at the IFA, David McVeigh, said the new requirements meant that
‘community relations’ was no longer an optional extra for clubs. From a club perspective, a
number of interviewees agreed, arguing that they had been very important to ‘force change’,
and without the licensing requirements many clubs would have done little in terms of
developing community-relations activities to challenge sectarianism and racism.
According to one interview, ‘If it wasn’t for such pressure, clubs would just focus on how
they paid that week’s wages to their players’. The obligations were just things good clubs
should be doing anyway, such as developing women’s football. It was generally felt that a
gradual tightening of the licensing requirements would require clubs to do ‘even more’ to
combat sectarianism and racism and develop a community-relations strategy.
One interviewee expressed concern that some clubs could still ‘bluff and get away with it’
and McVeigh accepted that some engaged in box-ticking in their annual reports. Discussions
with an IFA representative and one club community-relations officer revealed that some
clubs tended to pay ‘lip service’ to the latter role and at times community-relations officers
were marginalised from the upper echelons of their club. Indeed, the community-relations
officer at one Premier League club had turned up for the initial mandatory meeting with the
IFA, but has not been heard of since.
One interviewee suggested that a way of ensuring that the community-relations officer could
not be easily sidelined would be to make it mandatory that they were appointed to the board
of the club, as is currently the case with Glenavon. Part of the difficulty with some clubs
appears to be convincing them that they have to deal with the issues at hand. According to
one interviewee, some clubs believe that ‘they don’t have a problem with sectarianism, sure
that’s all to do with the Blues, the Glens and Cliftonville’. However, Alistair Crawford—the
Portadown community-relations officer, described the club-licensing requirements as
‘fantastic’ and said his club now realised that this could not be ‘just a box-ticking exercise’.7
Aside from the introduction of the club licensing requirement to appoint a communityrelations officer, another relatively recent development in the league, following a
recommendation by Jarman in his 2007 paper, has been the introduction of the system used
in the Eircom Premier League of independent ‘match delegates’ to report on events on
match day, including specifically any manifestations of sectarianism or racism. McVeigh felt
that this had led club officials to recognise they had to keep a certain standard rather than
just pay ‘lip-service’—a point echoed by Crawford, who said the new arrangement raised
Alistair recently won an award from Craigavon Borough Council for his work as a volunteer in football and
his interest in the Football for All project is such that he is now undertaking the equivalent of an accredited
course in community relations.
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club officials’ performance, as they realised they were under scrutiny. McVeigh did however
feel that match delegates could be better trained, for instance by role-plays of potential
scenarios, and the system was being reviewed.
One issue raised in relation to the match delegates was their remit. One club communityrelations officer was somewhat dismayed that the match delegate at a recent game was
‘checking if there was an adequate supply of toilet rolls in the toilets as well as checking the
number of bins in and around the stadium’. In this sense it was believed that the match
delegate should have a more clearly defined role—to monitor and observe any incidents of
sectarianism or racism at the game—and then report to the IFA.8
An IFA representative noted that the delegates had been appointed relatively quickly with
little training, and at times they perhaps overstepped their observation role by giving their
opinion and commenting on a particular situation to the club in question. Such an approach
on occasion created conflict between the club and the match delegate. A more structured
and clearly defined role, alongside adequate training, should allow the match delegates to
record information and present this to the IFA, whose job it was then to act if required. It
may also be appropriate to consider whether or not the IFA Competitions Department is the
most suitable department for managing the match delegates.
As to what extent these innovations have changed crowd behaviour since Jarman’s research
during the 2006-07 season, there were different views. One well-informed interviewee in a
sensitive position said that the lack of progress at club level was the biggest disappointment
vis-à-vis the campaign, that there was a sectarian incident in the Irish League nearly every
week, and that this situation was the fault of the IFA. Boyd and Roddy separately referred to
serious sectarian abuse they had witnessed or experienced at Windsor Park during a Linfield
/ Derry City Setanta Cup game.
The interviewee in question suggested that local clubs had been slow to pick up the language
of Football for All and that sectarianism and racism remained at Irish League level, which
the interviewee linked to poor organisation. The Irish League ‘market’ was primarily the
‘loyalist’ male working class, yet this was a global sport. So the big issue was how to develop
participation across a range of axes, including women’s football and football for people with
disabilities.
It should be stressed however that there was a general belief amongst interviewees that there
were fewer sectarian or racist incidents at Irish league matches now than there had been
several years ago. According to one club community-relations officer, ‘I think the behaviour
is better: we pick a primary school and 30 of them come every week for free—the Mascot
programme. In fact I think the very presence of young people lightens the atmosphere a bit.’
Last season two match delegate reports were produced, one interim report mid season and one final season
report.
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Indeed, another interviewee said that Irish League football was ‘so, so far on’ from where it
had been years ago and suggested that the fact that some older supporters of his club had
recently gone to Portadown for the first time in ten years—when previously ‘some of the
buses would get stoned’—was an indication of the change. A small number of individuals
however felt that while there had been some improvement in the atmosphere at Irish League
games, Football for All remained very much focused on the ‘international set-up’. Indeed
one focus group of supporters of a Belfast club found that while the fans had all heard the
‘phrase’ Football for All, they were not very sure what this concept meant or what impact it
had had on the league or their club.
The two match delegates interviewed also presented a more positive picture. David
McIlhatton said that while the campaign had not enjoyed the same success in the Irish
League as at the international level and there were still elements of sectarianism—and he had
observed two incidents of racism—his experience of it had been very limited. Jonathan
Burgess believed that the Football for All message had ‘filtered down’ to club level and his
observation of sectarian behaviour had been ‘nil’.
One club community-relations officer referred to a relatively recent incident in which a fan
at one of his team’s home games had been making racist comments aimed at an opposing
player. Other fans had pointed out the individual concerned and he had been ejected from
the stadium and given a life ban. The community-relations officer felt this was indicative of
an increasing fan sense of ownership of the Football for All message. The incident had been
covered widely in the local press, which had given good exposure to the Football for All
campaign and its message of anti-sectarianism and anti-racism, and such behaviour would no
longer be tolerated at games.
One club recently ejected a fan for sectarian behaviour in the social club. It has issued three
banning orders already in 2010, one in relation to an incident at Ballymena in which a fan
signed the home team’s guest book with sectarian comments. So there would appear to be
some evidence that clubs are beginning to tackle some of these issues themselves and take
the Football for All message seriously.
In this regard, the role of fans was viewed as crucial and the fact that some clubs were
membership-only and effectively ‘owned’ by their fans was believed to have helped
consolidate this increasing sense of ownership of the process: ‘You cannot stand on the
terrace and let one moron sing something that brings all of you down.’ However, while this
community-relations officer affirmed that the atmosphere at Irish League games had
changed for the better in recent years, other interviewees were aware of the issues which
made it more difficult to fully implement Football for All at club level.
Rainey and McAfee of the AONISC said there were difficulties in translating the selfpolicing role of the Northern Ireland fans into tackling sectarianism in the Irish League. Fans
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were divided by club affiliation and efforts to organise Irish League club supporters as a
whole had not succeeded. Party songs that were not tolerated at home internationals were
still seen by some fans as acceptable at club level.
Nevertheless, more than one interviewee indicated how a committed community-relations
officer could replicate on a small scale the relationship Boyd had developed with the
AONISC. At Portadown, the community-relations officer has built up a relationship with a
group of ultras, the Red Terrace, which has brought drums and (Portadown) flags to games
and independently raised funds. The group has contributed to ending sectarian singing at the
club, including by drowning out and informally sanctioning bigoted fans who only attend big
games.
However, the flip side of this development is that while sectarian and racist language has
been very much reduced at home games over recent years, there is still a degree of ‘foul’
language including swearing, which may be off-putting to many women and any supporters
who want to bring their children to games. Indeed, another interviewee suggested that while
there were many fewer sectarian incidents at Irish League games than in previous years,
‘there are still some issues at a match. I have three kids myself; I wouldn’t want my kids
listening to that aggressive and nasty industrial language.’
Self-policing by fans should complement, rather than substitute for, effective stewarding.
Here a number of pieces of the jigsaw are however not in place. Legislation extending the
spirit of the Football Offences Act to Northern Ireland is still awaited, though it has been
the subject of a recent consultation. Even if it were introduced, according to the IFA’s
security advisor, Stephen Grange, other elements are: all-seater stadia, well-trained stewards
and safety officers, and a commitment by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to ensure
such legislation is enforced.
In Grange’s view, as things stand only a minority of stewards take their task seriously—as
against being spectators wearing high-visibility jackets who do not pay admission to the
game. They are not properly trained—though Sport NI has started arranging and funding
the training of stewards and safety officers—and they are inadequately supported by their
clubs, while facing pressures from spectators who know them. In this sense the move
towards professionalisation of stewarding in the local game remains crucial and would also
reduce the pressures on those volunteers who act as stewards and are familiar in the crowd,
which may hinder their ability to act effectively should there be an inappropriate incident.
Cliftonville FC, in addition to stewards, uses four ‘proper doormen’ or ‘black coat heavies’,
whom the club pays to remove any fans who throw missiles on to the pitch. While this is not
ideal, at the very least it involves people with experience in a related field and provides
additional support for the limited number of stewards at Solitude for home games.
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4. Meeting funding criteria
The criteria for the evaluation were organised around the targets and goals of the PEACE
III programme. From the outset, the programme has placed a strong premium on social
inclusion, recognising the connections between social marginalisation and politicallymotivated violence. Target beneficiaries for measure 1.2, under which the IFA has been
grant-aided, thus focus on areas of ‘exclusion and marginalisation’. There is, of course, a fit
here between the working-class (albeit overwhelmingly male) constituency among whom
support for football is strongly concentrated and which has been the main target of the
Football for All campaign and the principal demographic target of the measure. And in the
context of exclusion by race rather than class, also a concern of the measure, World United
has been at the very least an interesting demonstration project.
Social inclusion may be a necessary condition for reconciliation in Northern Ireland, but it is
however by no means a sufficient one. And so the successive iterations of the PEACE
programme have seen a strengthened focus on reconciliation as a goal. In part this stemmed
from critical evaluations of PEACE I and II;9 in part, too, it was fostered by clarification of
the meaning of reconciliation at Democratic Dialogue while one of the authors was director.
The five-element definition of reconciliation used by the Special EU Programmes Body was
a product of this work.10
Football for All has, though, pulled no punches in adopting an explicitly anti-sectarian stance
from the outset, and is of particular interest in terms of what has been achieved under the
critical fourth aspect of the definition—cultural and attitudinal change. In a decade marked
by serious political polarisation, reflected in the shift towards the Democratic Unionist Party
and Sinn Féin in electoral support and the experience of suspended or otherwise contested
democratic institutions at Stormont, Football for All stands out as a remarkable instance of a
reconciliatory trend that goes against the grain.
This has, however, sat uneasily with what might be described as the ‘official’ narrative of the
‘peace process’, which instead has promoted ‘parity of esteem’, where it is assumed that
cultural ‘traditions’ remain not only unchanged but are treated as set in aspic. In that sense
the campaign has not been immune from macro-political trends that have not worked in its
favour.
This contradiction was reflected in the interviews for this evaluation, when it came to the
issue of the display of national flags by clubs and/or supporters. Reconcilers would favour a
policy of only club emblems being flown, to unite supporters across sectarian or ethnic
divides by their common club affiliation. Those endorsing ‘parity of esteem’ would say
See www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/services/cds/cfni/funding/peace.html for summaries.
Gráinne Kelly and Brandon Hamber (eds.) (2005), Reconciliation: Rhetoric or Relevant? (Belfast: Democratic
Dialogue, http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/dd/report17/ddreport17.pdf), 28
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however that it is unrealistic to stop national flags being displayed. As their respective
community-relations officers indicated, Portadown supports the former policy, Linfield the
latter.
Football for All helped facilitate a discussion on flags with the anti-sectarian organisation
Trademark, the police and the 12 Premiership clubs in 2009. Given that, through the efforts
of Football for All, the partisan character of flying the Union flag at internationals has been
recognised and so stopped—when the team that is being supported is a Northern Ireland,
not a UK, team—the case against the flying of either the Union flag or the Tricolour, as
against a club emblem, at league games is that much stronger.
However, there is a difference between pressurising clubs or even regulating what emblems
clubs may display from their premises and what flags or emblems an individual can bring
into a stadium. On the one hand, if a club displays a flag identifying the club specifically with
one side of the community or another, this may legitimately be challenged. On the other,
supporters may reasonably be encouraged to adopt any new club flag. Indeed at Northern
Ireland international games fans were encouraged to buy into wearing green but they were
not forced to stop using the Union or Northern Ireland flags—and the latter can still be seen
in the stands at Windsor Park, albeit on a much more limited basis than in previous years.
Another issue in the cause of reconciliation is the playing of The Queen at Northern Ireland
internationals. Discussions about the addition of a second anthem at international level, akin
to the introduction of ‘Ireland’s Call’ for Ireland rugby games, should be continued as part of
the process of addressing barriers to inclusion in relation to individuals from a Catholic
background.
At the time of writing the 2005 evaluation, there was an expectation that the Maze multicode sports project would go ahead. The conciliatory potential of a stadium bringing
together soccer, Gaelic and rugby was recognised, with all bar one of the interviewees then
expressing themselves to be relaxed about the occasion being taken to drop The Queen11, in
line with practice in Scotland and Wales. The IFA, along with the Gaelic Athletic
Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union, was signed up for the stadium proposal,
despite a rearguard action by some Belfast football fans against an out-of-city location.
The renewal of devolution in 2007 saw that project however defeated by the deadlock on a
range of issues between the main parties in government, the DUP and SF. This stalemate
has had distinctly negative effects. As Neil Lennon put it in the Green and White Army
video, seated in the stands at Celtic’s Parkhead , the historical baggage associated with the
location remains a barrier for many Catholics coming to the ground to support the
international team, however much the stadium is renovated. And, leaving aside the ethical
considerations driving Football for All, the difficulty remains within the Irish League that
11
Wilson (2005), 23.
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Linfield as a club receives a subsidy from the IFA which other clubs see as a ‘sweetheart
deal’—as one competing club figure put it—preventing a level playing pitch in the
Premiership.
5. Achieving aims and objectives
In the PEACE III application, Football for All’s specific objectives were set out as:
1.
Work with Amalgamation of Official Northern Ireland Supporters Clubs to
remove barriers to inclusion.
2.
Develop the World United programme as stand alone Community Group
and strategic partner of Football For All by Dec 2009 which uses football to promote
positive Interculturalism.
3.
Development of Football For All Interagency Forum working to make Irish
Premier League clubs ‘Beacons’ in the community.
4.
Seek throughout the plan period to achieve a strategic fit with key agencies
from IFA departments and national [sic] ‘Shared Future’ policies to European wide
policies.
5.
Develop a planned approach up to 2012 with new ethnic minority
populations to seek their opinion and find ways of integrating them into mainstream
football activities.
6.
Provide training on an ongoing basis for IFA Directors and staff to ensure
that they remain up to speed on current Community Relations policies and
responsibilities.
7.
Throughout the plan period promote ‘Football for All’ in community sector,
schools and in partnership with supporter bodies.
8.
On an ongoing basis work with the Amalgamation of Official NI Supporters
and Irish League Forum Supporters Group to empower fans to remove barriers to
inclusion in Northern Ireland football, especially focusing on issues of identity, flags
and anthems.
9.
Develop a drama and DVD by Dec 2009 capturing the story of Football For
All to date.
10.
Work with Irish League Clubs to help them tackle sectarianism and racism
and create stronger links with the community.
11.
Work with UEFA and key international agencies to position IFA as leading
light in tackling sectarianism, racism and homophobia in football in Europe by 2012.
12.
Co-ordinate a regional Conference to highlight good practice, promote Peace
& Reconciliation, Promote anti-bias work and development, present models of best
practice and practical workshops to implement the cross cutting themes.
Much progress on these objectives can be reported. Objectives 1 and 8 depend on the
commissioning of research on whether the playing of The Queen at Northern Ireland acts as
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a genuine barrier to Catholic support of the international team. The AONISC contains a
range of views on this and so would welcome impartial evidence.
On objective 2, World United is now thriving independently, with its own management
committee, though vis-à-vis objective 5 (and noting the timescale) there is nothing yet beyond
World United offering an entrée to members of minority communities into mainstream
football in Northern Ireland.
On objectives 3 and 10, while not all community-relations officers at Premier League clubs
are showing dynamism and leadership—Cliftonville, Crusaders, Glentoran, Linfield,
Glenavon and Portadown being the best performers—this is precisely the idea of ‘beacons’,
that they should encourage the others to follow. Four local clubs did take part in exchanges,
in Northern Ireland and Scotland, with Falkirk FC on how to develop the ‘community’
dimension of their club. The campaign has supported the leading work by Crusaders in its
various outreach activities, discussed in more detail below. And it has backed Glentoran’s
Football for All ambassadors project with schoolchildren in the east of the city.
Indeed, during the evaluation key community-relations officers were praised for their
dedication and commitment, despite being volunteers. John Cardwell at Coleraine was
believed to have been proactive in organising activities with the Polish community, as well as
setting up a senior-citizens tour in partnership with Age Concern. At Glenavon, Ian Black
was singled out for his close work with the Ballymena Inter-Ethnic Community Forum.
Some local businesses may relocate to run their services from Glenavon, which would
contribute to the social-economy dynamic of making clubs more community-based.
On objective 6, as implied, the IFA Community Relations Department has already been
making an input into other departments’ work, as in the module Football for All provides
for coach education. The association was, at time of writing, undergoing a new corporate
planning process and was considering making ‘Football for All’ a new strapline to
accompany the IFA logo as well as incorporating the Football For All message into its new
vision, mission and strategic operating plans. Inserting the Football for All message at the
core of the association’s narrative of what it is about was recommended in the 2005
evaluation and is key to the success of the campaign—and, indeed, of the association as a
whole.
On objective 7, the campaign is already involved in an ad hoc way in a raft of grassroots
activities. This could, however, be rendered more systematic, a point to which we will return
in conclusion. Clubs such as Portadown, Coleraine and Crusaders, among others, continue
to organise training and workshops with hundreds of local schoolchildren and have
increased their work with members of minority-ethnic organisations.
However, one community-relations officer noted that while his club offered such coaching
to local schools at a very low rate (indeed the club would have made a loss), the IFA
13
grassroots coaches could offer the training for free and therefore the club was ‘losing out’
not only on a source of revenue but on coaching the ‘next generation’ of young people who
could potentially be the future fan base. It may perhaps be appropriate for some lines of
demarcation to be set, to prevent duplication of services offered and the clubs losing out in
this regard.
In relation to objective 9, the Green and White Army DVD was launched with much energy
and enthusiasm at the Odyssey during 2009. It provides excellent material which can be
taken into schools and other educational contexts to promote discussion.
Regarding objective 11, Football for All is well regarded within UEFA’s social responsibility
department, as evidenced by the support UEFA has offered in the past for the campaign,
even though it has not strictly fallen within the anti-racist focus of UEFA’s own effort. But
there are a plethora of organisations involved across Europe in the struggle against
intolerance in the sport, and it would be presumptuous of the IFA to assume a leading role
on that wider canvas. This point is returned to in the conclusion.
Finally, as indicated, on objective 12, the IFA organised a successful conference on
stewarding during 2009, which was well attended by Premier League clubs.
6. Longer term impact
The developments to date under the Football for All campaign, in terms of their long-term
impact, are very positive and a testament to the excellent work of the IFA Community
Relations Department. But the fact that there are 12 objectives, which are mostly actually
activities—‘work with the Amalgamation’ to ‘co-ordinate a regional conference’—suggests a
lack of focus. Objectives are not what an organisation does but the outcomes it seeks to
realise. In the absence of well-defined objectives, there may be lots of activity but not always
to maximum effect. Valuable events, such as the flags workshop and the stewarding
conference, may not be properly followed up. In that sense, the five ‘project-specific
outcomes’ identified at the end of the bid for Peace III support are closer to what objectives
should look like.
McVeigh felt that the momentum of Football for All had actually quickened in recent years.
He said it had ‘increased, improved and become more focused’, allied to being better
resourced. But McIlhatton felt it had ‘petered out a bit’ over the last two years and Andrew
Conn, the Linfield community-relations officer, said that while the campaign had been
necessary and had been a great success, in recent times it had become less focused and
needed to go much deeper than ‘stunts’, with more ‘substance and depth’. One interviewee
also said there was a need to go beyond ‘sloganising’ and ‘stunts’ to ‘structures, plans,
developments’, which would take on vested interests and leave a long-term legacy. Clubs do
however need to take ownership of the campaign themselves.
14
Everyone should be able to go to a football game, in the same way as they would expect to
go to the Opera House or the Waterfront, without any bad experience of any sort. McAfee
from the AONISC argued that sometimes Football for All could come across as ‘support
the IFA’, whereas it should be the other way around: it should be about the governing body
of the sport promoting football to all those who wanted to enjoy it.
The aim for Football for All suggested in the 2005 evaluation was ‘an environment in which
every individual can feel free to become involved in the sport, on a basis of equality, and
confident they will be secure if they do so ’.12 A very similar aim was incorporated into the
2007 intercultural plan published by the Football Association of Ireland, which one of the
authors helped to draft.13The current aim of FFA is to create a fun, safe and inclusive culture
throughout all levels of the game in Northern Ireland and this could perhaps be reviewed to
decide if it is sufficiently robust, with the objectives of the campaign appropriately aligned.
Football for All has not only deepened its activities by moving into the Irish League but has
also clearly broadened its agenda over the years. It embraces enhancing participation in
women’s football and disability football and it has supported the emergence of World
United and an anti-racist agenda. The campaign has also worked with young homeless
people through the Big Issue Street League and with the Rainbow project to deliver antihomophobic training for all staff
Interestingly, no one interviewed for this evaluation felt this was a straying from the narrow
ground of anti-sectarianism. And, indeed, it would hardly make sense for Football for All to
oppose one form of intolerance but not another, or to favour the inclusion of one social
group but not a different one. The same underlying values of liberty and equality apply in
each case, but this does require clarity as to the aim of the campaign if the message is not to
be blurred.
If the aim set out in 2005 were taken as a definition of the desired long-term impact of
Football for All, it quickly becomes clear that one of the constraints on the campaign at Irish
League level is the frailty of the senior club infrastructure. Clubs are small, lack serious
sponsorship, are unable to fill their stadia and are mostly focused on how they can pay their
bills from week to week—and, in some cases, outstanding tax obligations. Even the top
clubs struggled in the Setanta Cup against top teams from the Republic (and Derry City) and
none is able to compete meaningfully in European competitions.
Equally, it is evident that a key avenue for clubs to realise that aim is for them to become
membership-driven rather than controlled by ‘blazers’. Just as Barcelona and Real Madrid
have topped La Liga for years, so it is striking that the top four in the Carling Premiership at
Wilson (2005), 29
Football Association of Ireland (2007), Many Voices, One Goal: Intercultural Football Plan (Dublin: FAI,
www.loi.ie/images/stories/publications/FAI_INTERCULTURAL_PLAN.pdf), 15
12
13
15
time of writing—Crusaders, Glentoran, Linfield and Cliftonville—are all membership-based
clubs or (as in the case of Glentoran) have a supporters’ trust.
7. Conclusions and recommendations
Within the objectives of Football for All as set out in the bid for PEACE III funding, and
within the normative framework of reconciliation and social inclusion of the PEACE III
programme, the campaign has sustained a record of achievement. The consolidated success
at the Northern Ireland international level, the more uneven progress in Irish League clubs
and the at this stage inevitably patchy initiatives at grassroots level--including the World
United success story—all indicate that Football for All has built upon the progress in the
second half of the decade that it developed in the first.
Within the IFA itself, this has been reflected in the development of the Community
Relations Department, as well as in the involvement of the head of the department in the
senior management team. Suffusing the Football for All message across the association as a
whole means ensuring, as McIlhatton argued, that all IFA staff—from the chief executive to
the receptionists and the grassroots development officers—are properly trained to be
ambassadors for Football for All and to see how it is central to the success of their day-today work. The head of community relations has invested significant effort in highlighting the
relevance of the campaign for all other IFA department managers.
But this should not be the limit of the campaign’s ambition. All campaigns have to run to
stop going backwards and there is a need to renew momentum. The research on barriers to
inclusion should be commissioned as soon as possible, to avoid the campaign drifting at the
level of the international game. And a stronger push is needed at the hub of football at all
levels below the international—the club.
Beyond the stipulations in the club licensing arrangements, the IFA should now issue
positive guidance on how it expects clubs to behave. Stewarding should be central to that
and will be legally underpinned, as and when legislation similar to the Football Offences Act
is introduced. Jarman’s 2007 paper set out an agenda for strengthening the role of stewards
and ensuring they do not fatalistically accept, for example, inappropriate behaviour by
spectators whether through belief that this is somehow ‘normal’ or out of fear of
intimidation. As Grange indicated, this depends on commitments by clubs, backed by the
PSNI, and the proper training of stewards.
It also requires clarification of what is ‘inappropriate’. And this again has been bedevilled by
the tension described above between reconciliation and ‘parity of esteem’. Should we ban
The Sash and The Fields of Athenry or should we celebrate their ‘cultural difference’? Any form
of intolerance is fundamentally about the exclusion of a stereotyped and collectivised, and so
dehumanised, ‘other’. Tolerance, conversely, is an inclusion of the other within oneself, in a
16
recognition of our common humanity. So it entails an awareness of our individualised
diversity, rather than hoovering us up into supposedly homogenous groups to which a
‘culture’ or ‘tradition’ can be fixed.
In that context, the guidance should be clear. Any ‘party’ songs, sung merely to define and
unify one group over and against another, should be discouraged—as has been the case at
Windsor Park through the work of the AONISC. They will certainly deter support from the
‘out-group’, as well as from tolerant individuals within the ‘in-group’.
Football fans have great capacity for creativity when they come together as individuals. And
so, as again the international experience has shown—McAfee was the author of ‘We’re not
Brazil, we’re Northern Ireland’—supporters will never be lost for voice, in a way which adds
colour and celebration to the experience, rather than fear and intimidation, in the absence of
sectarian expressions.
These principles should also lead to clear guidance on flags. Here there are two aspects: the
flying of a national flag from a club flagpole and the display of such flags by supporters. The
former is unambiguous: there is no case for a club whose affinity is local sending a signal—
wittingly or unwittingly—by display of a national flag that members of one or other local
religious community are effectively not welcome.
The second involves a balance of the rights of the individual to freedom of expression with
conflicting rights (notably the rights and freedoms of others) and other appropriate
considerations (such as public order). Clubs might conclude that banning the display of
national flags by supporters was an excessive interference with freedom of expression—and
might be counter-productive—but they could and should produce and sell distinctive club
flags and other regalia to supporters and strongly urge fans not to fly national flags
(including club insignia emblazoned on a national flag) because of the sectarian ‘chill factor’
they create. While ‘Ulster’ flags would still be flown by some Northern Ireland supporters at
international matches, and these do carry a Protestant association, the ‘sea of green’ initiative
over the years by the IFA and the AONISC means very few now seek to display the Union
flag at games.
The match delegates are then essential to ensure this guidance is translated into actual
performance. The guidance itself would help clarify the role of match delegates by giving
them benchmarks. They need in that context to be trained to monitor how far reality
departs, if at all, from the specified requirements.
Currently, the delegates’ reports go only to the IFA. It was clear from the interviews with
club representatives that they wished to see the reports but there was concern on the part of
the IFA that this could lead to partisan quibbling and could undermine the delegates. Yet
both delegates interviewed for this evaluation were happy that the clubs should see their
reports. What really matters is that any pattern of under-performance is conveyed to the
17
clubs as an issue to be rectified. If clubs dispute that there is a problem in that regard, there
seems no reason why they should not be shown the evidence presented in relevant sections
of delegates’ reports.
The next decade for Football for All should be about how it can become the driving force
for a regeneration of football in Northern Ireland, particularly at senior club level. Recent
discussions involving the IFA senior management team, reviewing the association’s strategy,
have broached the idea of making ‘Football for All’ an integral part of the new IFA strategy
underpinning the vision, mission, strategic operating plans and the strapline below the IFA
logo.
Aligning the association as a whole with Football for All would not only help its image—
which is much weaker than that of the campaign—but would also renew its sense of
purpose. One interviewee compared this with the transformation of the police in recent
years into the PSNI, which now enjoys widespread community support despite having
emerged from an overwhelmingly Protestant force.
If football is conceived as a pyramid of participation from five-a-side to elite level, that
requires an holistic strategy for broadening the base of the pyramid and, in tandem, raising
the height of its performance peak. McAfee argued that the future for Football for All was
grassroots work with children, seeking to engrain the right values into 8-year-olds as they
start their pathway in the game and taking preventative action with those youngsters at risk
of straying on to the wrong path. He drew encouragement from his own boy’s experience
with the South Belfast League; he noted how the youngsters always shook hands at the end
of games and he had never witnessed a sectarian incident.
Take futsal, for instance. As argued in our report on the World United experience,14 futsal
not only has great potential for integration, because many players from minority
communities are more familiar with it than their ‘indigenous’ counterparts, who may accord
them greater respect as a result. It is also critical, in pure footballing terms, to the schooling
of young players into the more technical and expressive style of play required if they are to
go on as adults to compete internationally with their club or the Northern Ireland squad.
Currently, the Community Relations Department does a lot of grassroots work, but it is
unsystematic. For instance, the IFA should promote a schools futsal tournament, for which
a sponsor should be easy to locate and for which the facilities are all there in school gyms. It
would be an inherently cross-community competition, which would help the profile of the
association in the Catholic community, and would doubtless identify players who could be
recruits to the centres of excellence
14
Wilson and Bell (2007), 11
18
Similarly, the association should give guidance to clubs on the organisation of open days—a
tradition now well established in the republic—which engage children from the locality,
particularly those from minority communities. This could be heavily advertised by the IFA
region-wide and would be a strong way of conveying the Football for All message on the
ground. A number of similar events have already been held by clubs such as Portadown FC
to engage with the local Polish community; other clubs should be encouraged to follow suit.
During 2009, the intimidation of more than 40 Poles, particularly those who had been living
in the Village area opposite Windsor Park, following the riot involving a section of Polish
fans at the World Cup qualifier, and the expulsion of more than 100 Romanians from south
Belfast showed that the cosmopolitanisation of Northern Ireland—and particularly that part
of it—in recent years has met some resistance. Looking ahead then, and without in any way
conceiving of this as a diversion from the continuing task of tackling sectarianism, the
challenge of coping with the growing ethnic diversity of the region will loom ever larger.
In that context, the progress made by World United will need to be sustained, and reflected
in ethnic-minority players breaking in not only to amateur football but also Premiership
clubs. This is a gap in the Community Relations Department which should be rectified as
soon as resources allow employment of another member of staff.
As for clubs, the key task is to extricate themselves from the vicious circle of weak finances,
a narrow fan base and low achievement to enter a virtuous circle of investment, enhanced
support and rising performance. It is clear from the survey data commissioned by the
Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure some years ago that the intolerance which scars
the culture of hard-core Irish League fans is a significant deterrent to participation, as was of
course also the case before Football for All transformed the atmosphere of Northern Ireland
internationals. It is true there are other deterrents—particularly poor play and poor
facilities—but these are part and parcel of the same vicious circle.15
This calls for what Boyd called a ‘culture shift’ on the part of clubs. The most successful club
on the planet, Barcelona—winner of six trophies in 2009, every national, European and
world competition it could have won—is of course member-owned and positions itself as
the expression of Catalan regional identity. It has thus been able to attract an entrepreneurial
board and has been progressive in other ways—for example, in hosting the last-but-one
triennial Unite Against Racism conference and giving official recognition to gay Barcelona
fans. It is an example of what makes any organisation successful in today’s world—an
outward orientation to its users. The same principle has made Google, driven by the simple
quest to help internet users search for what they want to find out, one of the world’s most
successful companies.
15
Wilson (2005), 27
19
Breaking out of the vicious circle is not impossible for Premiership clubs if they are willing
to adopt a similarly progressive and entrepreneurial attitude, as the trajectory of Crusaders
has shown in recent years. The club has generated an ambitious plan for a new stadium on
the north Belfast foreshore and has developed important links with the local amateur
(Catholic) club Newington and, in the Academy North apprenticeship project, with
Cliftonville. It has copied governance reforms adopted by the latter club, so that each board
member has a clearly designated role, and it has developed relationships with its supporters
and is seeking to affiliate to Supporters’ Direct, the UK organisation which promotes
supporter involvement in club governance. Crusaders are also in discussions with Belfast
Metropolitan College about the possibility of running the first national sports diploma for
young people aged 14 and above.
Indeed, field trips by Crusaders staff to other clubs in Europe, such as Bradford, AFC
Wimbledon, Hamilton Academical FC, St Mirren, Clyde, Airdrie, Ayr United, AZ Alkmaar,
and of course Falkirk, are a step in the right direction and highlight a willingness to learn
how other clubs have used modern technology16 and a community-development model to
‘grow their business’ and therefore improve their long-term viability. Further trips and
exchanges of information should continue to be encouraged (where resources are available)
by the Community Relations Department.
Crusaders have invested in a 3G pitch, which is part of what Langhammer calls their ‘open
door’ policy, attracting thereby more bookings from within the Catholic community, related
to women’s football, World United and so on. It seeks to engage the most youngsters—
whether through mini-soccer, invitations to primary schools to attend games or free season
tickets for all its under-age players, and to get away from the idea that a football club has
high walls and barbed wire. It aims to secure the best players—among its four women’s
teams it has gained the affiliation of the top-performing Newtownabbey Strikers. And it
recognises that for every fan it gets through its turnstiles there is a multiplier effect as
additional money is spent on match-day purchases. Langhammer thus sees not only that
‘good community relations requires investment’ but also that there is a business argument
for making that commitment.
Morrow is persuaded of the Crusaders ‘business case’, which he holds up as a model. ‘This
lets you do football better,’ he put it simply, adding: ‘Every obstacle to inclusion is an
obstacle to your viability.’ The ‘big win’ was for clubs to see this as a priority, out of a
combination of business and moral reasons. It had fallen to a north Belfast club to lead
because the sectarian demography of the area posed such clear limits to club viability.
(Recent research by ICR has found that there are 88 ‘peace walls’ or other sectarian barriers
16A
Norwegian club on the outskirts of Oslo, Staebeck, has recently developed a modern stadium with a
capacity of 8,000. It utilises a database of 10,000-12,000 people to email and send text messages, inviting to
games and offering discounts at the club shop and bar. Southend United employs a similar system.
20
in Belfast, overwhelmingly in the north of the city.17) The hope would be that envy of
Crusaders’ lead would encourage others to follow.
In this context, far from a token or marginal role, the community-relations officer should be
at the heart of club development. As Langhammer argued, it is important that they attend
the board and report to it. They should be in constant dialogue with fans, as well as reaching
out to local voluntary organisations and schools—particularly those where students are
mostly from the ‘other side’ to the club’s traditional support. Their work should be critical to
persuading local business to invest in the club—by demonstrating a growing club audience
for sponsors’ messages and assuring them that the club offers a positive association.
Crawford at Portadown is able to claim contact with about 40 schools and some 70 youth
groups in the area. However, for some clubs, the community-relations post is merely a boxticking exercise and there has been little interest in engagement from a small number of
community-relations officers. And because they are volunteers their capacity is severely
limited.
It was nigh on impossible for the evaluators to get in contact with other communityrelations officers, let alone arrange dates and times for meetings. Most work full-time and
partake for their love of the game and their club, but they have limited time therefore to
broaden their activities to reach a wider local audience. Some have managed to do this
through sheer persistence and enthusiasm, but for maximum effectiveness each club would
need to have a full-time community-relations officer in a paid capacity.
As acknowledged by an IFA representative, there is also a misunderstanding on the part of
some clubs as to what constitutes community-relations work: ‘Some clubs think inviting a
few schools to a game is enough.’ The Falkirk model may be a potential driver for clubs in
realising the business case to broaden their appeal and as a result the Falkirk community
team have been invited to the Football for All Domestic Seminar, at Glenavon in May 2010,
to share their story. As one interviewee succinctly put it, ‘When the local library is about to
close, the community are up in arms. When a small, local football club is about to fold, few
people outside of some dedicated fans actually care.’
The library offers a resource to the community, whereas in many cases a football club has
tended to be viewed as a closed shop, with the stadium lying dormant except for match days.
Falkirk FC realised that it needed to make the club vital to the community and therefore
began opening its doors and becoming very much a ‘community club’ by offering childcare
facilities, adult education courses and so on. While the club can therefore involve young
people in football and after-schools programmes, it can also appeal to mums and dads and
beyond by offering valued services.
Community Relations Council (2008), Towards Sustainable Security: Interface Barriers and the Legacy of Segregation in
Belfast (Belfast: CRC)
17
21
According to one interviewee: ‘You have got to have people involved with the club for all
different reasons. Some people just go to the social club … but if there is a range of things
which they start to associate the club with, instead of having this ground which has barbed
wire and bottles at the top and a sign that says Keep Out, the doors are open, there are
things that you and your kid can be involved in, that makes a contribution at a whole lot of
levels, that starts to break down the barriers, and maybe they come down on a Saturday to a
game too.’
This approach, supported by the IFA, can not only transform how a club looks and feels,
but may increase the sense of ownership in the community, with the club viewed as a local
resource which can aid long-term sustainability.18 It is in the interests of football as a whole,
and so of the IFA, that such ‘open clubs’ should emerge and flourish. The association should
therefore be willing to offer advice on club development and provide match funding to such
clubs, where they produce a credible plan to take them in a five-year timescale into the
virtuous-circle scenario and invest their own resources in so doing. This would help to
address the problem that other club officers may not appreciate what the communityrelations officers are doing and why it is so important.
The latter need more opportunities for mutual learning and support—and some healthy
competition as to who is doing what and what is working best. For example, Crawford
invited all the other clubs’ officers to a game against Glentoran to get their independent
assessments of the match-day experience. Given the patchy experience of the Football
Interagency Forum, what perhaps is thus needed is a smaller working group of those clubs
willing to meet this ‘open club’ standard. Each of the meetings of this group might involve a
presentation by a host club official or by an invited club representative from outside of the
Irish League.
The backdrop, as the 2005 evaluation concluded, is that there are too many clubs in senior
Northern Ireland football chasing too small a financial pot. Major sponsorship, as the
Confederation of British Industry indicated in a withering reference to Irish League football
as ‘Mickey Mouse’, would only be attracted to an all-Ireland project.19 Subsequently,
Coleraine went through a period of administration and Derry was demoted from the Eircom
Premier League, while in the republic Cork City went into examinership and Drogheda
United experienced serious difficulties.
An initiative to establish an all-Ireland league, the Platinum proposal, did not succeed, but as
Roddy argues such a plan can be expected to return to the table, a vista echoed by Morrow.
If that day comes, only the best performing northern clubs in all senses—from footballing to
financial—will find themselves ready to enter the top echelon.
Indeed, Crusaders’ appointment of an external fundraiser has also helped in this regard and was said to have
been invaluable in securing the resources to fund the new 3G surface at Seaview.
19 Wilson (2005), 18
18
22
The conclusion to this evaluation has set out a broad and ambitious future agenda. It thus
can no longer be assumed that Football for All is a ‘bolt-on’ activity of the IFA which will
accrue its own funding from elsewhere. In advance of the 2012 expiry of PEACE III
funding, the IFA will have to ensure that Football for All is at the core of the budget of the
association as well as at the core of its activities. That means putting it front and centre in its
new strategy. A professional fundraiser for Football for All—and many public or charitable
funders would not fund the commercial aspect of the association for obvious reasons—
should be employed as soon as possible, bearing in mind the imminence of that 2012
deadline.
Morrow held out the possibility of the association applying for core funding from the CRC.
That would require government departments being convinced of the case. He advised in that
context that the IFA commission specific research showing the economic and social returns
from investment in Football for All.
There is, here, potentially a big prize. If the IFA were to see this instrumentally as a pot of
gold at the end of the PEACE rainbow, it would be a big mistake. But if it were genuinely to
commit itself as a whole to Football for All as a long-term strategy with a deep legacy, it
could reap real rewards.
The following therefore are a series of recommendations based upon the findings of the
evaluation:
1. The IFA should commission research into the remaining barriers to inclusion
at international level, with particular regard to any barriers to the inclusion of
young Catholics.
2. The IFA should seek to promote club colours and flags where possible. This
may reduce the numbers of communalist flags and symbols which act as a ‘chill’
factor discouraging attendance at local football. In line with this, alternative songs
not traditionally associated with one community or the other should be promoted
over and above those with partisan loyalties.
3. The IFA should continue to promote as ‘beacons’ clubs which are more
social-economy and community-based, such as Falkirk FC. Such an approach
would in all likelihood bring in new streams of revenue, (re)connect clubs with their
local areas and communities and increase long-term sustainability. In this sense the
IFA should promote the ‘business’ case for clubs adopting such an approach and
encourage (and support where possible) trips or exchanges with clubs in other
countries on study visits.
23
4. The IFA Community Relations Department should facilitate discussions between
clubs, fans and supporters direct to encourage the strategic involvement of fans to
support Football for All in the league.
5. The Community Relations Department should continue to give guidance to
clubs on the holding of ‘open days’ at their facility, to reach out to members of
a local minority community (religious or ethnic), female players, players with
a disability etc.
6. There is a need to increase connections with minority ethnic communities
outside of the World United framework, including via efforts by clubs and the
broader ‘football family’ to ensure they reflect the wider community, in racial
as well as religious terms.
7. The IFA should continue to address stewarding in the local game, particularly
around training. It is difficult to take action at games in which an inappropriate
incident may occur without the requisite level and standard of stewarding.
8. In line with this, the IFA should continue to work to secure the extension of
the Football Offences Act to Northern Ireland.
9. It may be appropriate for club community-relations officers to be mandatory
appointees to the board of directors. The IFA could seek to introduce this change
through a tightening of club licensing regulations. This would address the
marginalisation of community-relations officers at some clubs.
10. The Community Relations Department should endeavour if possible to secure
funding, from DCAL or OFMDFM, to allow a club community-relations
officer to be a full-time post. This professionalisation of the post would also
contribute to lessening the workload on the volunteer staff in their current capacity
and allow the community-relations officers a much greater opportunity to build
relationships with local areas and communities. It would genuinely embed the
Football for All campaign at club level.
11. The Community Relations Department should, in the meantime, promote a
small working group of dedicated community-relations officers to share
information, contacts and good practice.
12. The IFA should review the role of match delegates and more clearly define
their remit. The job of the delegate should be to observe and report, not to give
opinion or pass comment to clubs. It is then the responsibility of the IFA to sanction
or discipline the club(s) if deemed necessary.
24
13. To this end match delegates need to be properly trained and have a full grasp
of their responsibilities (and job limitations).
14. It may be appropriate a match delegate’s report to be viewed by the club in
question, whether this be the ‘full’ or a ‘watered down’ version. Such action
would allow clubs to respond directly to any allegations and would also allow them
to address any issues more quickly.
15. The IFA should consider whether the Competitions Department is the most
suitable department to oversee and manage the match delegates.
16. Discussions should be held between clubs and IFA grassroots officers to set
lines of demarcation on offering services (such as coaching) to communities.
At present, IFA grassroots programmes are proving more attractive than club
coaching, which reduces the ability of a club to build links with schools and other
organisations in some localities.
17. The Community Relations Department should organise a School Futsal
tournament.
18. The IFA should work with the CRC to look into possibilities of securing
funding to appoint a Football for All funding officer to support the
development, sustainability and mainstreaming of the campaign.
19. The Community Relations Department should deliver annual good-relations
and cultural-diversity training for all members of the IFA board—Football
Commitee, Premier League Committee and Disciplinary Committee—as part
of its commitment to Football for All.
25
Appendix 1: executive summary of the 2005 evaluation
Football has no intrinsic values: it can be a force for conflict as well as co-operation.
Launched in 2000, the Football for All campaign was stimulated by deplorable sectarian
incidents at Windsor Park during Northern Ireland internationals. But it has developed into
a broader, positive campaign to enhance engagement with the sport, as supporters and
players, by members of a range of historically under-represented social groups.
The campaign has engaged in a wide variety of activities. These can be categorised in terms
of information, activation and development, though these should be seen as mutually
reinforcing.
In terms of information, introduction of community-relations and disability-awareness
modules into coach training has been a major innovation, but these can be seen as outputs
rather than outcomes of the campaign. Assessing the latter is inherently difficult but
journalists and editors, as well as interested onlookers, provide a good independent gauge.
They were remarkably positive in interviews about the campaign—particularly the work of
the community-relations officer, who leads on the information dimension.
The impact of development work is easier to measure. Remarkable rates of growth of
participation can be counted in women’s football and football for people with disabilities in
recent years. These have been so rapid that it would be implausible to claim they were simply
the produce of spontaneous social trends.
These are obvious aspects of any campaign to assess. But the most fascinating aspect of this
research is in terms of the dramatic impact of the campaign in the area of activation.
Against the background of the highly disturbing data collected for government by
Pricewaterhouse Coopers on the heaving skewing of Northern Ireland and Irish League
support by religion and gender, an intriguing facet of Football for All which emerged in the
interviews has been the engagement of fans, initially at Northern Ireland level, in its ‘coproduction’. This has allowed it to present an otherwise very challenging message in a nonthreatening manner and to activate fans to engage in ‘self-policing’ and embrace ownership
of the campaign. This is hugely positive and as an approach can be cascaded down to Irish
League level.
This ‘co-production’ of the Football for All campaign by fans has represented a major
innovation in community-relations practice in Northern Ireland, which has wide implications
for how the goal of a normal, civic society identified in the A Shared Future policy framework
on community relations can best be pursued. In particular, it highlights how the expertise of
voluntary associations, and the idealism of voluntary effort, can realise achievements that
government alone can not.
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This assessment of the impact of the Football for All campaign used a combination of
quantitative and qualitative methods, combining a questionnaire survey, interviews with
figures associated with the game at all levels and focus groups of fans.
The questionnaire response was disappointing but nevertheless illuminating, as clear patterns
emerged. Respondents affirmed the success of Football for All in transforming the
atmosphere at international games, but they did not detect similar change at the level of the
Irish League. They also strongly endorsed a range of suggested activities as to the future of
the campaign, suggesting a groundswell of goodwill, while warning that this would be a longterm challenge.
In the interviews, there was powerful recognition of the change at Windsor Park as the
biggest single sign of the effectiveness of the campaign. This was reflected not only in the
creation of a more ‘carnival’ atmosphere but also in the capacity to sell out the ground,
which could clearly not be put down—until, that is, the extraordinary night of September 7th
2005—to improving performances on the pitch. But there was also evidence of good
practice vis-à-vis small, street-level projects.
The new stadium envisaged at the Maze was widely seen as a valuable initiative for the
campaign (though not everyone agreed that it should be outside Belfast). If multi-code, it
could send out an important integrative message. It was also seen as a means to raise the
standard expected of stadium facilities and to widen audiences for Northern Ireland
internationals—particularly among women and people with disabilities—if that standard was
high. The question rose as to whether a fully neutral venue required the replacement of God
Save the Queen by a more broadly acceptable alternative at matches, with most respondents
taking a relaxed view of such a change.
Criticism of the IFA, sometimes robust, did however emerge, which highlighted how critical
Football for All is to the modernisation of the association. A generally negative image came
across in several interviews and there was particular criticism of how the ban on Sunday
games countermanded the Football for All message of inclusion.
Government also came under criticism in the interviews, in terms of its commitment to
tackling intolerance in the sport. A comparative look at the Scottish Executive’s antisectarian efforts casts the Northern Ireland administration in a poor light. Ministers could
and should replicate the efforts of their Scottish counterparts. Legislation needs updating to
ensure supporter misbehaviour can be more effectively dealt with.
It was strongly argued that the next step for the campaign was to make a more systematic
impact on Irish League clubs. The merger between the IFA and the Irish Premier League
was seen as making this possible, and a vehicle was offered by the licensing system which the
IPL is developing to lever change—particularly with regard to improved stewarding and
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facilities—which would promote access by all. Each club should designate a Football for All
co-ordinator.
While financial constraints were acknowledged in these regards, it was felt that a community
orientation on the part of clubs offered a route to long-term viability. There were also radical
suggestions, for ground-sharing for example, which could have a conciliatory potential, and
the Setanta Cup was widely welcomed as a north-south initiative.
The potential of the 16 new Football Development Centres was also widely recognised.
These were identified as offering major opportunities to widen participation in the sport by
oncoming cohorts of young people. The data that will have to be compiled and submitted to
the IFA by the grassroots development officers, if properly collected, will help meet the
concern of government about poor data collection by the association as to how many people
participate in the sport in different ways, and who they are. The IFA should engage in early
dialogue with the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure to sort this issue out.
There was further widespread agreement that the campaign had a future—indeed that it
should be further developed. Paradoxically, the more it raises consciousness about the limits
to the inclusiveness of football, the more it identifies that which needs to be done. This
related to another shared belief: that Football for All needed to be, and to be seen to be,
integral to everything the IFA does. Indeed, there was a recurrent connection in the minds
of interviewees between the success of the campaign and the broader ‘modernisation’ of the
IFA.
This has implications for where the campaign sits within the organisation. It should operate
as a discrete and, as resources allow, expanding unit of the association, reporting directly to
the chief executive, rather than coming under one or other existing department. The broader
advisory panel running the campaign should be chaired by the IFA chair or chief executive,
and the participation of external stakeholders enhanced.
Funding for the campaign has hitherto been dependent on support from the EU ‘Peace II’
programme and UEFA. If Football for All is indeed to be integral to the future role of the
association, interviewees identified the need for it to receive core, rather than project,
funding. A proportion of the money from the soccer strategy should be allocated to this
purpose. Examining funding is also a way to make priorities clear: following the FIFA
recommendation of ensuring at least 10 per cent of associations’ budgets was allocated to
women’s football specifically would ensure it was taken seriously.
There is scope for clarifying the aim of Football for All, looking to the future. One simple
way of articulating this aim is: an environment in which every individual can feel free to
become involved in the sport, on a basis of equality, and confident they will be secure if they
do so. This can be translated into consequent objectives, to which projects or activities
capable of measurement or qualitative evaluation can be attached. These will all add up to a
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cogent and persuasive strategy—the elements of which are already largely available in
existing documentation—which the IFA should work up and to which its executive
committee should be clearly and publicly committed.
But government also has a major role here. Not only because of the campaign’s potential to
secure public goods in terms of football but also because of the lessons it is generating for
good practice elsewhere, government needs to put its shoulder behind this campaign. That
commitment will itself be measurable—in political and financial terms.
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Appendix 2: methodology
The evaluation was conducted during January and February 2010 and was based on:
(i)
semi-structured interviews with:
a. the chief executive of the Community Relations Council;
b. the head of the IFA Community Relations Department, the head of the Irish
League and the association’s security advisor;
c. Two other IFA representatives, one form the Community Relations
department and one associated with the management of the local game;
d. two representatives of the Amalgamation of Official Northern Ireland
Supporters Clubs (and a member of the Football for All advisory panel);
e. a representative of World United (ditto);
f. three club community-relations officers;
g. two Irish League match delegates;
h. a representative of Derry City FC;
i. the head of the Belfast Community Development Sports Unit;
(ii)
focus groups comprising:
a. supporters of—
i. Cliftonville FC, and
ii. Crusaders FC.20
These two were selected to engender a religious balance while recognising that they had each been to the
forefront in trying to address ‘community relations’ issues.
20
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