Our cracking goal

As Community Relations Week gets under way, the IFA's Michael Boyd tells Laurence White how Northern Ireland football fans have changed their image — and also swelled recruitment to the Green and White Army

Monday, April 28, 2008

Michael, head of community relations at the IFA, met the drummer, a man called Trimble from City of Armagh Northern Ireland Supporters Club, outside the ground.

"A big issue with the fans was the ban on drums inside the ground. We had agreed that one drummer would be allowed in and I would monitor what went on.

"We went into the Kop end of the ground. He was a brilliant drummer and every time there was any sectarian songs or chants he drowned them out. That was the beginning of a new atmosphere at Windsor Park."

Michael, an avowed football fan and still active Amateur League player, gives most of the credit for the transformation of crowd behaviour at Northern Ireland matches to the fans, and particularly the Amalgamation of NI Supporters Clubs.

Changing Windsor Park from a ground where even Catholic players on the Northern Ireland team suffered abuse from their own fans to one which is now regularly 'a sea of green', took a lot of work and that task is still in progress.

Michael was doing a Masters degree in Communication, Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Ulster in 2000, when he spotted an advertisement for the post of community relations officer at the IFA.

His final interview for the job was on the same day as an important examination.

"I did the three hour examination in one hour and then drove across Belfast for the interview.

"I was quite flustered and at one stage managed to knock the plug of the projector out of its socket when giving my presentation to the interview panel.

"I also had what I call my Kevin Keegan moment. At the end of the interview I shook my fist and said, 'I would really, really love it if I got this job'."

His enthusiasm obviously swayed the panel and he was appointed.

However, he recalls, there was no great enthusiasm for his task among some at the IFA.

He says: "No-one even came to see me for the first week and one senior official told me that tackling sectarianism in football was a can of worms."

Working with the IFA, the Community Relations Council and the then Sports Council he devised the Football for All strategy which was the blueprint for changing attitudes within the sport.

"I had tremendous support from the CRC and Sports Council and also from Professor Alan Bairner, then of the University of Ulster and now Loughborough University, who had written extensively on sectarianism in sport.

"Our guiding principle was to create a safer, fun environment for football fans."

Part of his task was to secure funding from the various EU Peace programmes to pay for his work. Around £300,000 has been committed to date.

"Without the CRC and the Special EU Programmes Body none of this could have happened," he says.

One of his initial tasks was to get as much support for the initiative as possible.

This meant right from the hierarchy of the IFA, through the various clubs at all levels, down to the fan base.

"I worked it through the entire IFA staff from the senior officers to the bottom rungs of the organisation.

"Coach education now includes a compulsory community relations module and that applies right from Irish League managers down to volunteers coaching boys and girls soccer teams.

"We also run anti-sectarian workshops with clubs and community organisations.

"They often approach us to help them formulate ways of tackling sectarianism or racism issues."

But he realised that the fans had to have a stake in the initiative if it was to work.

"The Amalgamation of NI Supporters Clubs has been at the heart of the changes. We had to convince the supporters that sectarianism was hurting the game and the international team.

"It didn't have a kit sponsor because companies did not want to be associated with events like the disgraceful behaviour of fans at the match between Northern Ireland and the Republic or when former captain Neil Lennon received death threats.

"Families, both Catholic and Protestant, were also being driven away from the game by sectarian chants.

"I told the fans that nothing could change without fans being at the heart of that change. Even legislation could not change attitudes."

Two members of the Amalgamation were drafted onto the IFA's community relations advisory panel "to reassure them that there was no hidden agenda".

Michael adds: "They were sitting at a strategic level with the IFA, CRC and Sports Council and they were stakeholders in the process. That was key to building trust."

At the time the Amalgamation had around 12 member clubs. Now it numbers around 100, demonstrating that fans have bought into the initiative.

"The fans self-police their behaviour at international matches and representatives of the Amalgamation have their own presentations which they make to fans."

Michael admits that old hatreds can be hard to shift. On one occasion, after he had taken part in an anti-racism promotion, he received a death threat which was passed on to the PSNI.

"There is always a minority who are against change or who see it as a threat. However, we have used good community relations to strengthen the Northern Ireland international team's identity. The ground used to be half empty for matches, now it is booked out."

He adds: "Community relations is not just a nice thing to promote; it makes really good business sense. We have Sky Television and other corporate sponsors willing to put money into the local game.

"However, it was sad that the Programme for Government set out by the Executive did not really recognise the valuable work on community relations that has gone on."

There are still problems, of course, as witnessed by the recent death threat to the Cliftonville manager and trouble at the Linfield/St Patrick's Athletic Setanta Cup match in Dublin.

But, Michael stresses, there are structures in place which are working. For example, every Irish League club has to have support for community relations written into its licence to play and has to have a designated community relations officer and implement the UEFA 10-point plan on such issues.

An inter-agency forum involving supporters' groups, clubs, community relations groups, the PSNI and corporate interests has also been established.

There are also initiatives to tackle racism and the IFA works closely with the NI Council for Ethnic Minorities and the NI Committee of Refugees and Asylum Seekers.

As a Glentoran fan — he signed for the club as a teenager and played a match for the Northern Ireland U15 side and still plays for Sirocco Works seconds in the Amateur League — he realises that football is a passionate sport, but he believes that passion does not have to spill over into hatred.

He argues: "If we were to play the Republic of Ireland in a match next week that would be an interesting test. I believe it would be a passionate derby game free from sectarianism from Northern Ireland fans because they have been at the heart of the change."