'It's everyone's responsibility to do something about discrimination'

As part of the Premier League's No Room For Racism initiative, Brighton & Hove Albion's Women's Super League star Madison Haley spoke to girls from Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) about the importance of allyship in the ongoing fight against discrimination.

The girls from BACA took part in a special workshop at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre in Lancing, before having a Q&A session with Haley and a group of Brighton Under-18s academy scholars.

“Workshops like these are fantastic because they teach young people about important things like recognising abuse, noticing biases and being a strong ally,” said midfielder Haley.

“Allyship is super important. It’s everyone’s responsibility to do something about discrimination.

“It’s so key to get this message out to young people while they’re still forming opinions, and by educating children we can hopefully stop discrimination in adults before it even forms, nip it in the bud.”

The presence of academy scholars Alfie Mansell, Layth Gulzar, Nehemiah Oriola, Joshua Lewis, Joe Belmont, Ronnie Gorman and Matthew Hayden (pictured at the back of the photo below) was an important show of unity, as Haley explained.

“I think showing solidarity against racism is really helpful. It keeps the issue in people’s minds and shows people that football won’t stand for that kind of behaviour,” she added.

“Football is one of the most diverse sports on earth. Just in our team alone we have so many different nationalities represented, and fans from every country watch the game.

“So football can have a major role to play in fighting discrimination, because it is a huge platform that reaches so many people from all walks of life.”

Rob Josephs, education and employability manager at the BHAFC Foundation, has seen first-hand how valuable it is to engage and educate young people.

“I think that workshops like we had today can be really powerful tools in shaping how young people see the world,” he said.

“It’s so important that we’re out there reaching children at an early age, opening them up to new perspectives and learning about the real-world issues they’ll have to face as adults."