The Daggers have highlighted the issue of race as much as any club in recent years. After the unfortunate allegations made against Garry Hill by Fitzroy Simpson in 2003 which led to the departure of Mark Stein, the club have strived to take a stance against racism. They supported the Kick It Out campaign with a matchday event in 2004, as well as supporting Show Racism the Red Card for what is now 4 consecutive seasons.

The club’s work in the community has covered schemes such as Kickz and the Thames Gateway Youth Football Project which actually yielded a first-team player in Dominic Green. On Saturday, the community and anti-racism work was brought together with a designated day of action. The day was supported and attended by both Kick It Out and Show Racism the Red Card, as well as representatives from the Football League. The scheme has attracted praise from Sir Trevor Brooking, Robbie Earle and Paul Elliot amongst others.

As part of the day, ticket prices were reduced to an incredibly low 99p and 25p for adults and concessions respectively. Of course, this meant a bumper attendance of 3,721 in what MD Steve Thompson described as a “loss leader”. Tying these two events together was a great move from the club, allowing many people in the borough a very cheap day out and hopefully producing fans of the future. Whilst all the focus was on our club, with special treatment on the BBC’s Football League Show as well as coverage in the national press, it would’ve looked poor on our part with a sparsely populated stadium.

As with any major event involving the club, the day has stimulated a lot of debate on the unofficial forum, but not all of it is positive. One of the concerns being raised is that the club didn’t actually need to go ahead with a day such as this, suggesting that we do not have a racism problem. The statistics would appear to back this up; in 2008/09, only 2 Dagenham & Redbridge supporters were arrested at football matches, and neither was related to racism.

However, this is no reason to be complacent – it would be very naive to suggest that there aren’t any racist comments uttered on the terraces of any club – and also, this day was about more than just football. Trying to bring the community into the club with lower prices made them a captive audience for one of the most positive and ethnically diverse events in the borough. Barking & Dagenham has the 9th-highest level of racially motivated crime out of 32 boroughs. Whilst this could partly be put down to the ethnic diversity of the area and the inevitable issues that come with it, neighbouring Redbridge actually has a far higher percentage of non-white and non-white-British residents whilst ranking 27th on the same measure. If football can help address these issues, then why not?

Another point raised was about the supporters of the event, and in particular an organisation called Hope Not Hate. Billing themselves as an anti-facist organisation closely tied to Searchlight, it seems from their website that their main aim is to discredit the BNP at every opportunity – 6 of their top 7 news items relate to them, the other is about the Daggers. With support for the BNP growing in Barking & Dagenham, it has been suggested that this is all a bit too convenient. Thankfully there was no hint of any political rallying at the game. For those who are interested, there is plenty of documentation on the internet showing Searchlight in both a good and bad light, but really we have no inclination to pick through this here.

One player who has had the spotlight shone upon him more than most is Anwar Uddin. It is well documented that he is the first British Asian to captain a club in the Football League, and he has been a willing ambassador for the club in this regard. The eloquence with which he fulfills this role makes him a credit to his profession. Some would say it is fitting he made his long-awaited comeback from injury in this match; others would say it smacks of tokenism. Personally I doubt that John Still would allow his players to be used in this way.

The bottom line is that this day was a success. The crowd was almost double that of the previous home match, and the club have heaped positive attention on themselves throughout the football community and beyond. The 2nd period of the game was probably one of the best halves of the season, and what a perfect day for this to occur when there were over 1,500 floating fans waiting to have their imagination captured. It is no coincidence that the next home match, against Accrington Stanley, is a Kids For a Quid day, so with any luck many of Saturday’s new faces will now go on to become full-time Daggers fans.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 1:16 am and is filed under Reaction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.