By Dan Tennant-Ralphs

A Different League lends their support and column inches to a young man with a new campaign tackling an old issue in our beautiful game.

My name is Dan Tennant-Ralphs and I am a 22-year-old graduate from Cardiff University with a BA in Italian & Spanish. More importantly, I am a life-long self-confessed football addict with an unquestionable passion for my beloved and at times inconsistent team - especially around November - Arsenal. I did not have the possibility of playing football at any competitive level while at school due to the presence of field hockey (something I still do not understand to this day). The irony was many people at my school turned their noses up at football - a sport which was founded by some of the most prestigious schools in this country. However the point of this column is not to complain about what sports my school did and did not offer. The objective is to examine the issue of racism in the ‘beautiful game’ whilst offering you the chance to see the minor, personal efforts I have been making myself to attempt to tackle the issue right from its simple beginnings up until today.

Following on from last week’s introduction, Dan explains the motivation and first steps taken in starting his anti-racism campaign.

My One Game For All, Without Racism (OGFA) campaign first took shape on November 8, 2006. The location was the Pontcanna playing fields that envelope central Cardiff, which have provided many classic Intra-Mural League (IMG) clashes down the years and which are neighbored by the famous Millennium Stadium. The team which I was captain of at the time - Euros FC - was a true multinational outfit. As representatives of the European Studies department, this was to be expected.