ELIMINATING RACISM ONE GOAL AT A TIME

ELIMINATING RACISM ONE GOAL AT A TIME

For a long time now, black footballers have played a very important part in our Premier League teams, like Chelsea as an example. Think of Didier Drogba and Ashley Cole, genuinely phenomenal players. But they may never have had the opportunities they did if one very brave and resilient man who came before them had not been prepared to take the bullets and pave the way forward.

It was almost fifty years ago that Paul Canoville began playing for Chelsea and from the minute he first set foot on the pitch, he also took the first step towards changing the history of football in more ways than one.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Paul’s story is not an easy one to hear - so most definitely not an easy one to have lived.

Paul wanted to be a footballer from the age of five. His parents had been part of the Windrush generation and separated when Paul was only two. Paul’s mum, a nurse, struggled to bring him and his sister up alone and was not impressed with Paul’s sporting ambitions which she did not view as a career with prospects. Paul admits to feeling the absence of a male mentor and found himself getting involved with groups of older boys, following their lead - not always in good ways. These boys were amongst the first to recognise Paul’s talent with a ball and tried to discourage him from getting too involved with their activities and to concentrate more on developing his skills. Sometimes he listened. Sometimes he didn’t.

Paul played truant. He missed almost half a term at school. So when exams came, to say he was unprepared is a gross understatement. It was at this point his mum became aware of what was going on - and, needless to say, she was not best pleased. But Paul refused to stay away from his friends. When they decided to break into an electrical shop, Paul wanted to be a part of this. This was the first time he had done anything criminal but luck was not on his side and he got caught. He expected the judge to be lenient as it was his first offence but he got four months in borstal. He says this was a real wake up call for him. He was only 15 at the time.

The borstal had a football team and, of course, Paul joined. An outside team came in to play against them and Paul’s team won with an incredible score of 10-0 with Paul scoring nine of the goals. He was really encouraged by one of the guards to try and get a major team to sign him on. When he came out of borstal, his aunt (who was a second mum to him) also encouraged him to really go for it with football and he was taken on by a club called Hillingdon Borough where he played as a semi-professional. His mum and her partner

moved to Slough and Paul moved in with them. It seemed as though finally things were picking up for Paul - but it was not to be. Paul and his mum’s partner did not get on and, after an argument, he threw Paul out. Paul then discovered what it means to be homeless, walking the streets with nowhere to go. His sister was pregnant and living in a hostel and no males were allowed in so the only way she could help was by giving him food through a window. An old neighbour let him sleep in his car - something he did for three weeks. The only time Paul could shower was when he went to training twice a week so, needless to say, he arrived at the sessions not smelling too sweet. One of his team mates pointed out that his smell of BO had not gone unnoticed. Paul’s pride had stopped him from telling of his situation until that day - but then everyone wanted to help.

Paul was going for trials at some of the bigger and better clubs and Chelsea took him on for the remaining seven months of the season as a trial. This was a dream coming true for Paul. Little did he know another nightmare awaited.

After four months, Paul was called into the first team as a reserve.

“I was so excited for my debut match. It was a London derby against Crystal Palace. On the coach driving to the ground, I played over and over in my head what I could and would do if I got onto the field. Putting on the shorts, the tracksuit, my lucky ring - it was all a ritual and the excitement was building up inside me. I was so ready. The score at the end of the first half was 0-0 so I thought there might be a chance I’d be called on for the second half. After 30/35 minutes nothing happened, so I was scraping the aluminium studs of my boots on the concrete to make a noise to remind the manager I was there, ready. He eventually told me to warm up. As I was preparing to go on, I heard some very ugly racist abuse and thought it was Crystal Palace’s fans trying to put me off. The abuse was getting worse. Bananas were being thrown at me. When I turned around I was horrified to see it was actually Chelsea supporters. It was so difficult I didn’t want to go on the pitch. I did but I was thrown. I wasn’t in the right mindset. As soon as the final whistle blew, I got into the changing room as quickly as I could. Instead of the usual banter, everything was so quiet. My teammates had heard the abuse.

But I went back to my ambition as a five year old and I was not going to let these racist fans strip me of my dream. I stayed. It took almost three years for the abuse to stop. I got booed while others were cheered.

Everyone was shocked and stunned. On the way home, all of my friends were calling me and telling me I shouldn’t be playing for such a racist club. But I knew it wasn’t the club. It wasn’t even all of the fans. Just a few. It was a hard decision to make as to whether I wanted to stay and play in front of them again. But I went back to my ambition as a five year old and I was not going to let these racist fans strip me of my dream. I stayed. It took almost three years for the abuse to stop. I got booed while others were cheered. I felt I had to play twice as well as my teammates.”

Where it all changed was a cup game against Sheffield Wednesday. Chelsea were 3-0 down and Paul was brought on after half time. Within 10 seconds he scored. That gave Chelsea the boost they needed and they managed to draw the game. And, with that, the fans changed their perspective.

The following week at Chelsea’s next game, the fans sang Paul’s name for the very first time. And never stopped after that.

That match was pivotal for Paul in more ways than one though. He had been in contact with his dad who he had not seen for many many years and as he happened to be living in Sheffield, Paul invited him to the match. He accepted - this was the first time anybody in Paul’s family was to see him play. Paul’s head was full of questions for his dad - but he knew he had to concentrate on the game. When they met after the game, somehow all the questions seemed irrelevant. They had a drink and thereby began a relationship that is still a huge part of their lives today.

Paul was always a player that was brought on late in the game; something he wasn’t happy about as he felt he deserved to be on from the start. This gave him some attitude - particularly when one player who he did not consider to be as good as him was signed and was playing from the outset every time. This made Paul delay in signing a new contract. Then a terrible incident happened. Paul was racially abused by one of his team-mates and approached him face to face to

tackle the matter. The player continued with the abuse and Paul punched him and knocked him out - something he regrets to this very day. A few days after he received a call from management asking him not to return to the club or training ground.

He then signed for Reading FC and it was while playing for them that he received a serious injury from a bad tackle and was told he would never play professionally again. This was devastating for Paul. He remembered how his mum had always told him how important education was and how he had never listened. But now he did not have a clue what to do next. He decided to try and make a recovery and carry on.

Paul went through rehabilitation for a full year. He came back to play but after one game his knee was so bad he knew then for sure that his career was over and he retired. Depression hit hard. He started to take drugs - crack cocaine - and became addicted. He became a recluse. Everything went downhill rapidly. Eventually he went to rehab.

Whilst in rehab, he became very ill and it turned out Paul had cancer. He went through surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. His hair fell out. His immune system was very low so he was susceptible to colds which, for him in his state, were a very serious threat. One cold rendered him paralysed. He nearly died.

Paul was to go through another two cancer episodes. His life was hard to say the least. He hid away from everyone not wanting people to see the shell he had become.

Eventually he began seeing a counsellor and he started - for the first time in his life - to open up. Coming from a Caribbean background he had been always taught never to talk about his private business so this was a real counterintuitive shift for him. He says it was the best thing he ever did. It changed him. It changed his life. He says he felt “released”.

Paul was invited by Chelsea to give some talks to children about what he had been through. Paul was surprised at this as clearly the children were not old enough to remember him as a footballer - but he soon found out that despite their ages they most definitely knew who he was. Whilst Paul’s life had been spiralling, his place in history was being cemented.

He started to do more talks, inspiring the young with his story of fighting adversity and coming out the other side. Being able to finally open up, Paul discovered how powerful and captivating his experience was for others. Buoyed by the difference he could see he was making, Paul wrote his autobiography ‘Black and Blue’ in the hope that it would reach a broader audience and help them too.

From this, Paul felt highly motivated to start his own charity, the Paul Canoville Foundation whose mission is ‘to enrich children and adults through equality and diversity initiatives that improve allyship, belonging and community’.

We spoke to the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Matt Uberoi, about how the Foundation puts its mission into practice.

“We utilise Paul's powerful story of being Chelsea's first black player, of overcoming adversity such as racism, to ultimately develop and achieve really positive outcomes.

We deliver across three main areas. The first is in schools. We are fortunate to work with brilliant education partners and local authorities, particularly in London. We reach thousands of children across hundreds of schools, speaking to them about the importance of education and developing allyship - standing up for your friends. Children need to have the confidence to talk about their problems but, equally important, is giving their cohort the confidence to support their friends and stand with them when something happens that is not right. That isn’t just in response to racism, but a wide range of other issues children go through.

Our second delivery route is through sports, delivering football and other sporting programmes at grassroot level. We've developed really good partnerships with growing and influential sporting entities, and that includes Chelsea Football Club, who we have formed a partnership with and do a huge amount of outreach work through.

Our third area of focus is through enterprise. We work with businesses, either partnering on impactful projects and initiatives, but also through Paul delivering inspirational talks to staff about inclusivity and resilience - particularly, for example, in the run up to Black History Month. People want to hear Paul’s powerful story and he is so good at delivering it. He is electrifying.

We support Paul by harnessing his incredible story and working out a way to scale it so that it can reach far more people - people who could really benefit from hearing it - and not just here in the UK but all over the world.”

Matthew is quick to say how much Paul underplays just how highly he is considered in the sporting world.

“My dad was actually at the Sheffield Wednesday away game Paul spoke about. Being from India, he was one of the very few ethnic minority supporters of Chelsea at the time, who also endured horrible things on the stands, but still kept going. Paul was a massive inspiration to my dad, even as an adult older than Paul at the time.

Today, Paul is considered a Chelsea legend. We're still talking about Paul nearly 50 years on from when he played for Chelsea; and in 50 even 100 years' time people will still be talking about him. There's not many people that occupy such a significant place. And it's because he was resilient and persevered.

That's one of the reasons Paul’s story is so inspiring. It really connects with people because life is hard for so many. There are strong messages

that Paul conveys so effectively about being resilient, about talking about problems, about developing allyship, and really moving forward in life. Knowing that you can move forward, if you persevere and are strong, and that you can achieve really positive outcomes. And there's no greater positive outcome in footballing terms than what Paul achieved. He changed the path of Chelsea when it was an awful time for football. Racism was prevalent, you couldn't have picked a worse time to be a black footballer. But Paul kept going at it and it's truly remarkable.”

Both Paul and Matt think football - and sports in general - have come a long way since Paul’s initial experiences - but there is a lot of work still to be done. Football often mirrors what is going on in society in terms of societal norms and what is accepted. And whilst racism in society is now less than it was, it is undoubtedly still there. Initiatives like Paul’s Foundation help educate people, help root out racism, help people find their voice and the confidence to use it.

It is tragic that one man had to go through so much. But to then use it to try and make football, sport, and the world a more ethical place is testament to what an incredible human being Paul Canoville is. ■

We utilise Paul's powerful story of being Chelsea's first black player, of overcoming adversity such as racism, to ultimately develop and achieve really positive outcomes.