Dagenham & Redbridge tackle race issue

Matt Dickinson, Chief Sports Correspondent | Tuesday, 16 September 2008 Source: The Times

A piece last week on football's place in the vanguard of good race relations prompted a phone call from Dagenham & Redbridge, the Coca-Cola League Two club. “Why no mention of our captain, Anwar Uddin?” Stephen Thompson, the managing director, asked. It was a legitimate inquiry.

If it is remarkable that a player of Bangladeshi descent should captain an English league team, then it is particularly so that it should be at Dagenham. The British National Party (BNP) is more popular in that part of East London than anywhere else in Britain.

“We accept that a number of our fans will be BNP voters,” Thompson said. “Where we can, we try to explain to them the contradiction of coming here to cheer on Anwar and then voting for a political party that wants to deport people.”

The club organise matches against local Asian teams and are doing their best to attract more Asian youths into the sport. “We do think we have a responsibility at the heart of the local community,” Thompson said.

It is heartening to know that some people still talk that way, although most of them reside outside the Barclays Premier League.