You can travel all over the world, not know a single word of the language being spoken around you and still hold a conversation with a complete stranger about football. Such is the power of the ‘beautiful game’, it can overcome language, race, religion and culture, yet it can also cause divisions between families, couples and best friends when teams or countries meet.

Yet some individuals, groups and races are blocked from or ridiculed for participating. The aim of this section is to provide information on the area of equality so that these barriers to participation can be removed from the football world so that it really can be called the Universal Game.

Introduction to Equality : Equality in football is about making sure that everyone has an equal chance to take part in football if they want to play, and no one is discriminated against. Read On

Anti Discrimination Policy : Your commitment has to be to eliminate discrimination whether by reason of gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ethnic origin, colour, religion or ability and to encourage equal opportunities. Read On

Equality and Language : It is often difficult if people are not sure of the implications of using certain terms or phrases. Read On

Equal Opportunities Policy : Our Football Club is committed to a policy of equal treatment of all members and requires all members if whatever level or authority. Read On*

Race Equality : Many of these minority groups participate in a full and rich football community, however some do not and we must start to question why they do not participate and what can we do to make football accessible for all who want to play. Read On

Sex Equality : There are approximately 40 million female players worldwide. Read On

Disability Equality : You may know people that fall into these categories and you may not regard them as being a ‘disabled person’ and certainly many of these people won’t think of themselves or be considered by others as ‘disabled people’. Read On

Sexuality Equality : The area of sexuality in football is one that is often ignored deliberately or brushed aside. Read On

Age Equality : Does there really exist a need to address ageism in youth football as well as senior football? Read On

Social Inclusion : Football is a sport played everywhere and not just confined to leafy affluent suburbs or run down housing estates, so for football the issue of Social Inclusion is a real and existing one. Read On

Religious Equality : As many countries become more diverse the number of different faiths increases and numbers of people practicing their particular Faith continue to grow. Read On

To aid the understanding of the different religions, an introduction to each of the major ones and the dates of their festivals has been included:

• Christianity*
• Islam*
• Hinduism*
• Judaism*
• Sikhism*

Religious Festivals*

* the link from here has been disabled, as this is as the user has limited access in this version

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