A warning this programme contains details some people may find upsetting. Commentator lingard. Sterling. Jesse lingard. Jesse lingard this is football, the beautiful game. A game that, on the surface, speaks the global language of unity, peace, humanity and celebration. Football commands the respect and with it our deepest faith and greatest fortunes. And yet, in all of this, throughout history, racism pervades. But why . And what does that feel like . Bbc sport caught up with a selection of black, asian and minority ethnic people from across the football landscape to hear their personal stories of racism from within the game. It takes away your innocence, definitely. I would never go to a football match on my own. I would remove my hijab when i got the stadium. It isjust like, a lack of respect for another human. Its a challenge that black people have felt all along throughout the ends of time. I have definitely had experiences where i have had players from different parts of the world that have not always understood the sort of negative connotations of some of the language they use. You know, music and saying certain words in a song, people are not always self aware of the impact of their behaviour or their words. There is the lack of recognition that actually, that might make me feel more uncomfortable because i am the only one. When we talk about colourism, we talk about mainstream advertising, sponsors, brands. When you dont see images of yourself that are referenced as part of the beauty norm, that can have a negative mental impact on how you see yourself. For me, it always made me challenge or i guess to some degree have challenges within my own sort of confidence because you see it everywhere around you in terms of this reference to blackness and how black you are being a negative thing. A negative stereotype. Kind of does not allow you to sort of take up that space. Sport and media and all that is intertwined and when you read or hear stereotyping of any form related to black female athletes or black male athletes or other ethnic backgrounds, its mentally draining because you dont want any individual to feel that they cannot be 100 themselves. Maybe on that particular day in a Training Session i am that very competitive person that comes across a little bit more feisty. But because there is an association with being a black woman and having that kind of energy and boldness is not always seen as a positive thing, i might refrain from being that person. That is what i think is a sad thing. Honestly, i think my message to people more so who receive racism is that, you know, obviously they are not the problem. You are seen as the threat, i guess, because for whatever reason the people that feel that they have to use that kind of behaviour or language feel, ithink, insecure. But ultimately it is always going to come down to us having open and honest conversations about racism and discrimination in all forms. Football and sport in general has a great basis to try to do this. I am a centre back. I mean, i know it is not my fault but it becomes my burden rather than theirs so i have to kind of carry that. They probably dont think about it at all but i have to try my best not to think about it. So the ref had given a penalty to the oval and there was kind of a pause and our keeper was going over to the ref complaining about something, and i couldnt really see from where i was standing so when i got closer, i realised someone had spat on him and he was pointing to show the referee and i think he was trying to show him who it was or something and it was just out of control. And then i went to get the ball out of net and thats when someone shouted at me, you black bleep. and i kind of lost my head for a bit and was being held back by a couple of people and we alljust kind of decided to leave the pitch. We felt like that was the best thing to do. I was just upset more than anything. I wasnt really thinking about football itself, i wasjust kind of shocked and embarrassed. I had to explain to my mum and my nan and whatnot. That is a conversation i would rather not have. Spitting isjust like, it isjust dirty. It is just a lack of respect for another human. That wouldnt happen in a normal workplace. To some people, it is theirjobs and whatnot. You are not turn up to a job and expect that kind of abuse just because youre kicking a ball round the pitch for people to watch. It should not be accepted at all. I had a phone call from someone at the police asking me how i am doing and it lasted about ten seconds and i said fine and she said, 0k, thank you. And that ended the call. No one has reached out to me. It is not the first time it has happened in my life and all the other boys in there as well, it is not the first time it has happened to them either but i dont think anyone should be able to tell you or stop you from living your dream. This has just been a few months of this protesting and where everyone are speaking about it but this has been going on for hundreds of years now, so im not going to sit here and say everything is going to fix itself now and people are just going to stop because if that was the case, then a lot has happened between 2020 and the 1900s. If us as players keep speaking up and being very vocal about it, then it will always be in their minds now where we are a different generation where social media is everywhere and everything is on the television and we know about whatever is going on now so maybe that can help. Now that the premier league and fa and so on are about to come out in support of the players wearing shirts with black lives matter on the back and taking the knee and whatnot and i think theyre backed into a corner now where they will have to take action if something comes to light and if anyone does get caught or does do it, then the repercussions will be stronger than they have been before. Hopefully we just keep pushing and people who do have a voice keep pushing the movement and trying to make a change because i dont think its for me and people older than me. Its for the Younger Generation and the new boys that will be coming up that we try and help and not have them have to live through what we have, the same way my grandparents and everyone elses grandparents and so on have tried to do that for us. It was kind of accepted to throw things and to abuse people. Its slowly starting to creep back into football where its not accepted but they feel like they can actually still say it. We were playing slovakia away and what i can remember was kicking off, played the ball to beckham, it was all fine. Played it back to ashley cole. And then there was a boo played across up boo. To me boo. And then back to scholesy, and then back to another black player. Then you kind of understand, because the actual booing was monkey chants. You just take it with a pinch of salt because wed grown up in that era where we had no real voice in that sense of power to do anything. It was staying on the pitch, and winning the game. I think there is a lot of my generation that didnt go to football and had their experience that they felt they should have done. I had an incident where i was about 13 and i got chased from a football match back to the town centre. I dont know what the guy was going to do. He was calling me a black this and that, blah blah blah. He definitely was not going to hug me. When you watch football on the television and you see fans getting together in you see the euphoria and the love and passion for the game then you go on your experience is totally different from what you saw and its only because of your skin colour, youre not going to go back. I played for the National Team under 165 and went to ireland and i was spat at and called the n word. A player older than me knocked two people out because of the same thing. As soon as we came onto the pitch, they were giving it black this, black that, get that n. Kick him, that n, blah blah blah. He just wasnt having it. We got to the point of where why have we got ten or 15 minutes into the game where someone has been racially abused and now two people have been knocked out and thats when youre dealing with it . It wasnt a big enough issue to deal with and say, take them to two off or were all walking off. We have got different platforms now to actually deal with it in the way that we want to address it. I think Raheem Sterling was a prime example of that showing certain ways of presenting things. Some people dont realise that theyre doing it but until they are pulled up in that they will carry on doing it. He pulls them up where hes got millions of people on a platform that he can show and then people cannot actually, they cannot deny it. I was reffing a game and was being observed as well. I sent a player off and he called me a. Bleeped. And i was quite taken aback the first time and i had just been a year in refereeing. I thought, hang on is refereeing actually like this . Whats the point carrying on . Why should i even come out on a cold winters day and take this abuse . Luckily the observer heard it as well. The players unfortunately denied it. I called the captain over, told him look, you heard what he said. And well be reporting it. The player started denying it and the started denying it saying he wasnt aiming it at me but i was the only asian on the field so i think to myself, hang on. Have ijust missed something . I started doubting myself saying, did he actually said . But i was certain in my mind. He did. I knew what he said. When i actually heard that my heart sank. I thought why would people say that . I did not do anything wrong against anyone so i did make me feel sad but i thought to myself, no, i want to get over this and i want to prove to these people that wrong show what kind of person i actually am, what i represent. I do think it is a shame coming from an asian background and muslim background thinking to myself, i have to perform at a much higher level compared to a white person the same age and ability and level as me. I have to perform at her much higher level. I want to be a role model and represent people from different backgrounds and i enjoy it and i think it gives me that drive to keep going as well. It is a burden at times because i am representing a lot of muslim people, asian people. Hopefully i do make it further and if i do get on National Television and i can portray myself like mo salah at liverpool. No one thought they would be chanting a muslim players name and hopefully one day it could be me. If not, i wanted to be someone else but i want to be helping them get there. Racism was accepted in the 705 and the 805 and there probably would not be two, three weeks that pass that you would not get some type of racial abuse from the terraces on an away game. It would have been heard and would have been heard by others. The fact that nothing was ever done about it, it was a culture that was accepted. On a lot of occasions there was not a support mechanism, you are almost going through it by yourself. I think my personality helped me cope. You became hardened to it. And if you let it affect you then you were the only one who was going to suffer from it. You had to be thick skinned and if you wanted to have a career in a game you had to get on with it. The hardest bit for me to accept, even with all the years that ive been in the game is that somebody would racially abuse somebody because of the colour of their skin. The thought process for somebody on the receiving end of that is incredibly degrading. I speak about the perception of black players. They were good strikers, physical players. They were not what you would see as perceived to be good captain material or Good Management material and i think that is a stigma that stayed for a while and i think that stopped a really good potential generation of black players going into coaching. Has racism gone away over that period of years . I dont think so. At least, what you do have is the dynamics in the changing room are perhaps better and more supportive now to any black player. When things become more difficult within a country or in life, unfortunately the bad side of individuals veers its ugly head. Footballs great influence spreads beyond the white band that defined the pitch. It is about so much more than that. It is big business and media coverage. It is organisations and federations are national and global levels. Football, to many, is the very culture that defines us. Whether racism is a problem for football alone or indeed a societal conundrum, those involved of the field of play have their own stories of prejudice and abuse as well as moments where the colour of their skin or appearance is the sole focus. Off the field of play. I would not say i had any role models when i watched tv because it was all, you know, white men. I admire them greatly. I loved des lynam had always wanted to present much of the day, watching him. Present match of the day. But it is true. There were no females and certainly no females who look like me or females of colour. I dont think people would have the guts to say anything racist to my face. I dont know whether it is because i am a woman or if that is the reason why. I am guessing that could be the reason why. It does not mean they did not think those things or they did not think that when i was first entering the industry, why is that asian girl here . What does she know about football . Perhaps there are people on social media who might not know that i worked at real madrid previously. They might not know ive been interviewing the biggest names in World Football for 12 years. So when i am doing something new, sometimes they will say, oh, she is therejust to make up the numbers. Oh, yeah, diversity gone mad. Itjust makes me laugh because, i think, i have longevity. I have been doing this for so many years. If they were picking me because i make up the numbers then they would have done that years ago. I would have been the biggest star in Sports Broadcasting by now if that was the reason. I100 , 100,000,000 feel that if i had an easier name. If my name was claire, i think myjourney would have been a lot easier. There is no two ways about it. People get really confused by my first name and then my surname. It is just too many, too many letters. Too many unfamiliar letters to say in one go. I think there is a language and there is a dialogue that has come into the mainstream, really, that is acceptable now that was once not acceptable. Things that were politically correct or deemed politically correct before have gone out of the window and people are sort of saying a lot more about what they think and that is why we are seeing more of it at football grounds because at football stadiums, people behave in a very different way to how they behave in real life. Often those comments that come out might not come out when they are, you know, walking into a bakery and the person working there might be foreign. They would not come up with those sorts of insults. It is just that there is a certain culture that is born out of being a Football Supporter, where people feel that safety in numbers and they are more free with their language. I have been a Football Supporter for 46 years and this has been my biggest passion all of my life. I am a fan and while i do not have the experience that a player has of racism on the pitch i have had my experience of racism in life and on the terraces. After a cup final we got so used to going to wembley that i knew the quick ways to get out and back to the tube but having watched the team lift the trophy, went out and found a short cut with my friends and we ran into some opposition fans who said, oh look, it is a. And then through their Chicken Dinner and coffee over me. At the england scotland game in euro 96 where there was a significant stand of people singing i would rather be a p than a jock and the only way you can react to that, is to treat it as a joke and go, so would i make people laugh. But inside that is not what you are feeling. Youre thinking, i cant believe people are saying this. It makes me angry and it makes me feel a bit powerless because i am doing the sort of calculation of, can i complain about this person . Should i complain about them . But i am actually also thinking about my personal safety. How far away am i from the aisle . Can i get to that isle . How many people are going to get thrown out . Will i be left to deal with all these other friends after the game . I think it was Martin Luther king who said that ultimately, what we remember is not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends. And so i think the message for fans is be those friends and do not be silent. If there is intolerance of discrimination it is not just my responsibility as a member of an ethnic minority to address that to complain. Anyone can complain because discrimination corrodes society. It does notjust hurt me, it hurts all of us. I have never ever experienced overt racism but there are definitely undertones when people address you. It is not something i think about too much but it is definitely something that is at the forefront of my mind when im dealing with people. Or when people are addressing me. You do find that changing tone all of a sudden when people realise that they are speaking to me and that is my role. That is an unconscious bias that people have. I dont think people are malicious in terms of how they come across but it is something that is underlined within our own psyche that that is how we behave or might be different to who we are. That is how we behave with toward people. Ive had many experiences where turn up to a game to a certain entrance and ask if i am in the right place, essentially. And im asking innocently but i get that certain look from the person manning the door even getting to the door with a ticket in my hand i still get a funny look in terms of, am i supposed to be in the right place and i think even before people speak to me, they assume im there as a partner of the director. Or as a footballers partner Something Like that rather than being there in my own right. There is probably an overriding feeling that i do have to work hard to constantly prove myself to people and actually, if i was to fail, whatever that might look like, i probably have the burden of that more than my white counterpart. So i do always have that in the back of my mind that actually i am being watched and im being scrutinised and i feel that. I do have that bit of added pressure just because i am an anomaly, i guess, in terms of how young i am, being a woman and being a woman of colour. So i do always feel that pressure that actually, i have to constantly prove myself but prove other people wrong. Im an fa council member. Last season i remember there were two or three occasions when my own fans abused me. And my brothers just had to hold me and say, lets just carry on walking. Lets keep going. At other clubs it is trying to get us to get riled up and angry and trying to provoke us into doing something but thankfully, we dont rise to the bait and we are just there to watch football, you know. I have gone to games for probably almost 20 years now. I would never go to a football match on my own. I would always go with one of my brothers. When i first started going to football matches i would remove my hijab when i got to the stadium and would wear a baseball bat and a scarf to cover me in a way that i felt comfortable but also a way where i blended in and therefore we felt that my safety would not be compromised. Very recently, just this season, i took my hijab off and put a baseball cap and scarf on again because i went to a stadium where i thought, have to be extra careful. Im not going to let people stop me watching a Football Game but i have be really careful and make sure that i dont create a situation. You know, you hear in my language that i am creating a situation where someone might potentially abuse me abuse me or attack me. For me, my focus is really now on ensuring that we do all that we can to eliminate discrimination from the game. I know that the cases around racism are being reported back to the top of this organisation to be fa. We know we need to look at sanctions and continue to look at that to make sure that it is proportionate according to what is happening because it is a disgusting thing this racism. Football is too special, too precious. It is too important to let divisions get in the way so for me we have to use its power to inspire people, yes, but also to bring people together. Racism in football remains a grim reality butjust because it has always been there does not mean it always has to be. Calling it out to reveal the truth is the imperative starts to this process. It is clear the roots of racism of each fire deep in all aspects of society then we could have ever but let these powerful testimonies be a reminder that football also offers a route towards unity. After all, when pele said it was the beautiful game, dont we all want him to be right . Hello there. Rainfall totals really mounting up now as it will continue to stay wet through this morning thanks to this area of low pressure which is pretty much sitting right on top of the uk. Now, we have got amber warnings for wales, the south west of england likely to expire to around midday today whereas further north the amber warning for eastern scotland will expire around the early part of this morning. It continues to rain for a while across scotland and then it turns a bit dry and brighter but very wet for Northern Ireland down into wales, particularly the south west of england crossing into the south east. It will be windy here, too. In the centre of the low, lighter winds. So we will see sunshine and also a few heavy slow moving showers as temperatures reach around 15 degrees. Now, as we head on into monday, low pressure still with us likely to bring further showers but it does look like that low will tend to ease down and move away through the week. Conditions slowly improving, increasing amounts of sunshine by the end of the week. This is bbc news. Im james reynolds. Our top stories donald trump says hes doing well in hospital, where hes being treated for coronavirus but expects to remain for the time being. You dont know over the next period of a few days i guess thats the real test. So we will be seeing what happens over the next couple of days. Meanwhile, as more Senior Republicans test positive, was last weeks unveiling of the president S Supreme Court nominee at the white house a super spreader event . And in other news civilian areas come under fire as the conflict in the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh intensifies
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