Campaign Overview

The Premier League is making it clear there is No Room For Racism as they continue to work with the clubs, fans, the FA, EFL, PFA, Kick It Out and the police to tackle discrimination across all areas of football. 

This phase of the No Room For Racism campaign was visible at all Premier League matches from Saturday 19 to Sunday 27 October, emphasising that racist conduct is not tolerated and urging supporters to take action. 

Ongoing work by the Premier League includes reviewing how offenders are identified, investigated and sanctioned. Education also takes place through rehabilitation programmes. Senior stewards have been trained in evidence-gathering at matches through the use of technology – such as increased CCTV coverage at grounds and bodycams – to inhibit offending behaviour and aid the identification of offenders. The Premier League is also developing additional training for stewards to ensure they are empowered and equipped to deal with discrimination at matches.  

Football is putting pressure on social media companies to tackle the issue of racism on their platforms. In addition, the League is working with its BAME Participants’ Advisory Group to ensure the views of BAME players and coaches are heard and to help inform ongoing work.

The Insight

High emotions are often used to justify racist behaviour.

The Idea

Walk the line - The campaign contrasts the fans’ passion, rivalry, agony, ecstasy and emotion; against the Premier League’s clear anti-racism stance. To encourage reporting by the fans, we included the call to action ‘If you see it, report it’ with a link to the relevant reporting mechanism across all executions.

The Work

The campaign mixed live action footage; reflecting the emotions of the game, player to camera clips, stark design, bold copy, an unavoidable declaration that there is ‘No Room For Racism in the Premier League or anywhere else’. It was developed and delivered by the Premier League with support from all 20 Premier League clubs, prominent players and managers, Kick It Out, broadcasters and commercial partners to convey a unified message to the fans.The campaign ran across TV, broadcast editorial, OOH, press, matchday collateral and social media.

Second Phase:

The Premier League has launched the latest phase of its No Room for Racism initiative, sending the strong message that it will not tolerate racism anywhere. The league is taking action to combat discrimination wherever it is found and is encouraging everybody across society to do more: to challenge it, report it and change it, so that together we can make a positive impact.

The Insight

People often see physical and verbal racist abuse as the only form of racism. However, racism can take many different forms (from instrumental through to structural racism) and it is only by learning to recognise them and by taking action, that change will come about.

The Idea

‘No Room For Racism. Anywhere’ - To achieve real change, we all need to recognise and act against racism in all its forms.

The Work

The campaign was built around how Premier League matches are used as a continuous platform to highlight racial injustice to a global audience. This includes players taking the knee before kick-off and the promotion of ‘No Room For Racism’ on all matchday shirts. These actions are balanced with the passion of the fans, the roles and responsibilities they have in being part of the solution as well as highlighting the measures that the Premier League itself has been taking to tackle racial inequality. The campaign builds to rally the fans to: Challenge it. Report it. Change it.