The club were pleased to welcome representatives from our newest supporters’ group, Fans for Diversity Iron (FFD Iron) at the Shrewsbury fixture on 22nd September to help celebrate their launch as well as the ‘Community World Cup’ they hosted recently.
The club have been working with The Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF) and their Fans for Diversity Campaign which offers support to football fans and supporter groups across the country to make the game more inclusive and accessible for all.
With thanks to this support, the club hosted an event to encourage members of the local Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) community prior to the final game of the 2017/18 season. Humayun Islam from the Bangla Bantams, a Bradford City supporters’ group came to Glanford Park to discuss how they had gone about setting up a group and engaged with their local community, as well as how they work with the football club.
Since then, members of the local Scunthorpe community, led by Sadique Kamali, got together and have created the new Scunthorpe United multicultural supporters’ group, FFD Iron, to encourage as many people whatever their ethnic or cultural background in the town and surrounding areas to engage with the football club and support the team.
The group have been organising for people who are new to football to come to home games. On Sunday 16th September they also held a Community World Cup at Crosby United, with teams representing a variety of nationalities including Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Portugal, Italy, England, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen, East Timor, Kurdistan and Brazil.
Sadique Kamali commented on the event: “The Bangladesh team, spurred on by over 100 supporters, were the overall winners of the tournament, beating Brazil in the final on penalties but the real victory was for the communities that had attended.
“Thank you to all those that took part or came down to watch, in what was a great event and thanks to the Scunthorpe United community team, Maria Horner from the FSF and John Needham from the Iron Trust who all attended. It’s certainly something the FFD Iron will look to repeat annually.”
Scunthorpe United’s Head of Marketing, Ticketing & Retail, Rob Noble, commented: ‘It’s great to see Sadique and the local community get together to put on such a great community event.
“The support from Anwar Uddin and Maria Horner from the FSF around the Fans for Diversity campaign, as well as Humayun from the Bangla Bantams, has been a great help to enable the FFD Iron to get up and running. We look forward to continue to work with them, as well as any other supporters’ groups out there who would like any help and guidance to grow their group and encourage more local people to experience and enjoy the live matchday experience at Glanford Park.”
Pictured above during half-time at the Shrewsbury fixture are representatives from some of the teams that played in the tournament as they came along to enjoy watching the Iron take on Shrewsbury.
Maria Horner from the FSF said: “The power of football to bring people together is exciting! The Fans for Diversity campaign aims to bring both existing and new supporters together to share the enjoyment of the game and support the team. The club has been very welcoming and we look forward to what the future will bring to the Iron”
You can follow the latest news from FFD Iron via their Twitter page, @FFDIrons and find out more details about the Fans for Diversity campaign by visiting The FSF website; http://www.fsf.org.uk/campaigns/fans-for-diversity/.