Monday Musings - Is everyone welcome?
Monday, 15th Oct 2007 19:37 by Paul Redfern

Can anyone guess what next week is about?

No, it's not about Owen's knee, or whether or not Lamps can play with Gerrard. It's the Let's Kick out Racism 2007 Week of Action when community groups, footballers and fans will come together to get behind the message.

'One Game, One Community'.

Bet you didn't know about that one? And did you know that nearly two years ago in November 2005, the Football Association held its first “homophobia” summit? Last week the Derby Evening Telegraph highlighted the issue of Gay footballers – or rather the issue of the missing Gay footballers.

So for those of you unreconstructed males out there – make your excuses now and stop reading this column. Because I'm going to say something that will curdle your milk.

I want Derby County to be much more active in reaching out to the Asian community and to be explicit in squashing homophobic behaviour in the club. And it's nothing to do with being a do-gooder. It's good economics.

Think about it – 5 Asians in professional football today, one of them being Michael Chopra (pictured) who has an English mother and an Indian father. In ten years time, there will probably be hundreds of Asians – mostly born here - who will be wanting to play football professionally. There are more than 60,000 Asians in Leicester, almost 130,000 in Birmingham. Derby has 22,000.

Surely it cannot be that there are only 5 good enough to play professionally? There must be more out there and when somebody cottons onto the fact that the next Zidane could be Asian (instead of being Algerian), then we will see an influx similar to Afro-Caribbean players.

And I want Derby County to be at the forefront and first in the queue for the footballing equivalent of Monty Pansesar playing for us. Think about it – Sheffield, Derby, Bradford, Birmingham, Leicester – all practically on our doorstep. Our scouts could save lots of money on travelling and still unearth a few gems. And just look at the club websites – click on the ‘football in the community' link and see if you can find an Asian face – you won't. So there's no competition there then. Let's get in first before they realise that there might be some decent players they are not picking up.

Likewise – the DET suggested that it could be that one in ten males have had homosexual experiences. And that there could be over one hundred Gay footballers terrified to come out.

Again – if Derby County's management were clear that they intended to remove homophobia from the dressing room and from Pride Park, then we might attract some great footballers to our club. Simple and cheap, it would pay us to be inclusive instead of exclusive.

That applies also to Deaf footballers. There is absolutely no reason why there shouldn't be more. It's simple economics. You don't see Marks and Spencers saying to people – “No, you can't come in here because you're Asian, or Deaf, or Gay or whatever.” Everyone is welcome – and that's how it should be in football and when we wake up to that fact, I want Derby County to be the club that everyone wants to be playing for because we got it right. So how about it Craig? Tell your scouts to look beyond their prejudices and instead of taking refuge behind silly stereotypes, start looking at the Asian leagues, Gay teams - wherever there might be a star in the making.

Let the message be loud and clear – we want you, regardless of who you are!