Top-flight footballers back police campaign to kick hate out of county

“Being physically or verbally abusive is not okay – inside a stadium or out in the community.”

That’s the message from Andrew Omobamidele and his Nottingham Forest teammates this Hate Crime Awareness Week.

Morgan Gibbs-White, Anthony Elanga and Naomi Bedeau joined the defender in condemning abuse and urging people to report hate offences.

The Reds stars have been sharing some of the challenges they’ve faced in their careers as part of a joint campaign with the police for Black History Month.

Omobamidele and Gibbs-White both revealed how they’d experienced racist abuse on the football pitch and how it made them feel.

“One of the challenges that stands out for me was when I was younger, playing in the league back home in Ireland,” said Omobamidele.

“There was a game, I remember, I think I was taking a throw in and I heard some discriminatory remarks, so I spoke to the referee about it.

“When I went home that night, I was a bit angry, a bit upset, and I just spoke about it with my mum. It's important to have that support system just to speak about it.

"People could say just ignore it, but when you see it targeted at you, it's difficult to ignore, but I do think it comes back to that inner confidence and support system."

Gibbs-White also found himself the target of hate speech earlier in his life, with the midfielder suffering racist abuse when he was still at school.

He said: “We were playing another school team away in Liverpool and I got racially abused by another player.

“In the moment, I didn’t quite understand or know how to handle it, but as I’ve got older I’ve realised the best way to go about it.

“They almost make you feel different to other people, just because of the colour of your skin, which is obviously wrong in so many ways because everyone is human and everyone’s blood is red.

“I know it’s hard to control your anger in the moment, but you sort of have to compose yourself and deal with it in the right way, whether that’s speaking to family members, friends close by, or just getting the support you need.

“If you haven’t got that support, don’t be afraid to open your mouth and speak to anyone. You might get something back, you might not, but at least you’ve gone out of your way to do something about it.”

Morgan Gibbs-White (pictured left) and Andrew Omobamidele (pictured right)

Gibbs-White, his teammates Omobamidele and Elanga, and Bedeau from Forest’s Women’s team, also emphasised the importance of other people reporting abuse to the police, if they see it or hear it.  

The footballers each recorded messages promoting the force’s ‘Take Aim at Hate’ campaign, which aims to reduce hate crime incidents across the county.

“I think the improvements over the last 10 years (around racism) have been incredible,” added Gibbs-White.

“The support we get here in Nottingham from the police is very good, and I’d say Nottinghamshire Police have done incredibly well to knuckle down on all of that.”

Nottingham Forest, Notts County and Mansfield Town all signed up to an agreement in 2022 to work in partnership with the police to deal with any hate that occurs at football matches.

This joint approach led to 32 hate crime incidents being reported at matches involving the clubs last season, with various action being taken including three people receiving football banning orders.

A hate crime can be separated into three types – physical assault, verbal abuse or incitement of hatred – and is based on a person’s perceived prejudice towards anyone because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender.

Chief Inspector Craig Berry, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “We’re really grateful to Nottingham Forest and their players for showing their support for our Take Aim At Hate campaign.

“We’re committed to doing everything in our power to try to eradicate hate, so getting this backing from people well-known to our communities and whose words carry so much weight is really impactful.  

“Hearing Morgan Gibbs-White and Andrew Omobamidele talk about how their experiences of receiving abuse made them feel was very powerful.

“It's so important that anyone who is subjected to a hate crime offence, sees it, or overhears it, reports it to someone, preferably the police.

“As pointed out by the players involved in this campaign, there are numerous ways of doing that, whether that’s letting us know over the phone or online, while we’d encourage people to tell a steward should they hear anything at a match too.

“Each of our county’s three professional football teams have worked closely with us to try and eradicate hate from our communities, and we appreciate their ongoing support.”

The national Hate Crime Awareness Week started last Saturday (12 October) and runs until this Saturday (19 October).