KICKING ON

Kick It Out is David to the Goliath of discrimination in football. For 30 years, the organisation has tirelessly battled boycotts, controversies and misconceptions with austere staff numbers and shoestring budgets, while trying to avoid biting the hand that feeds it. It's a thankless existence, yet essential for the future of the game

- Ben Mountain

“Do you know what the f**k we’re going to be doing?” Ben Tegg asked his new boss before starting at Kick It Out. “No,” was the answer. “We’ll work that out.” Four years after its foundation in 1993, Tegg became Kick It Out’s second member of staff. His new boss, Piara Powar, was the first. The anti-discrimination charity would become a pioneer in global football, but its humble roots can be traced back to a cafe in Angel, London, where Tegg and Powar met for their first day on the job in 1997, when the organisation ‘expanded’ from just a campaign (Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football) to Kick It Out, the fully-fledged body we know today, to tackle all forms of discrimination.

Awaiting them was a bank account, a new logo, and a 10x10ft office in the Business Design Centre, a sprawling exhibition space a mile south of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

Ahead of them lay a long future of tireless campaigning on only a shoestring budget, brushes with footballing giants and fierce public criticism. But before all that could begin, Tegg and Powar had an important task to complete: working out what the f**k they would be doing.

Despite restrictions because of their size, Kick It Out are football’s leading charge in the fight against discrimination, funded primarily by governing bodies including the Premier League, PFA and FA.

They have defined anti-discrimination campaigning in sport and helped to guide football away from its dark days. But they are often seen as little more than a tick-box exercise to cover football’s backside – there to pay lip service while looking the other way. T-shirts and badges, but little real work.