Pioneers And Progress
The Football Black List celebration, supported by the Premier League, made a big noise last month – while helping unearth a pioneer and celebrate another who had been forgotten. I couldn’t be prouder to be a co-founder alongside the Voice of Sport editor, Rodney Hinds.
What was once ‘just’ a list is now a progressive movement – and the honest truth is this was always part of the vision, but nine years ago it felt like an aspiration that would take decades to achieve. But on the 28th March at Village Underground, London we hit the heights of our initial ambitions.
300 guests, international media coverage, Premier League players in attendance, a high profile celebration of the greatest black footballers in the UK and championing our leaders in roles off the pitch. Wonderful, just wonderful.
LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 28: The Football Black List Celebration 2017 at Village Underground on March 28, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Premier League)
And the journey to delivering this incredible event brought me together with Tony Collins, the very first black manager in British football, who has received very little recognition to date. Now 91, but still bright and sharp, Collins still watches games regularly – but says football these days is no comparison to when he was playing and in the dug out managing. Disagree? Well, Collins knows his stuff and can back his chat – taking 4th Division Rochdale to a League Cup Final in 1962.
Yes, that’s right – he took a 4th Division side to a League Cup Final, but sadly never got another managerial role despite numerous applications. Collins insists it was nothing to do with his colour – but has no explanation for the lack of opportunities.
Handing Collins the Keith Alexander award, for his outstanding contribution to the game, I found myself welling up. What an honour it was to help recognise him.
The Football Black List celebration can also take some credit for helping unearth the first black female footballer in Britain – as the Guardian’s Anna Kessel discovered a lady called Emma Clarke. She was a black woman playing games in the 1890’s. Carrie Boustead was thought to be the first before Kessel’s article revealed this was a case of mistaken identity by Stuart Gibbs, an artist with a strong interest in the history of women’s football.
So much was achieved by the event and initiative. The ambition from here must be to grow the Football Black List further. Who knows what, or who else, we may find.