The 2024/25 sports season has kicked off strongly for the ‘Tackling Antisemitism in Sport’ project. In September, we held workshops for the staff of Brentford Football Club and the sports team at MIND—one of the UK’s largest mental health charities—discussing Antisemitism in sports and its impact on mental health. Luton’s academy staff also participated in the workshop, which has led to academy-wide bookings scheduled for December.
At the beginning of October, we were invited as keynote speakers at Wolverhampton Wanderers’ academy for their safeguarding week, conducting workshops for their U14, U15, and U16 squads. The workshops received strong feedback from the club, who reported an average rating of 9.75 out of 10 from participants in their internal feedback survey.
Following Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we made two trips to the Manchester area—first to Salford City, where we ran sessions for their U18s and staff, and then to Stockport County, where we provided workshops for academy players ranging from U12 to U18 and their staff. These sessions were very well received, with strong engagement from the players, including reports of the younger groups “quizzing each other on their knowledge throughout the rest of the day!”
Outside of our regular programming, we attended the ‘Include Summit,’ which offered valuable networking opportunities with professionals in the sporting industry focused on equalities.
Additionally, we have held numerous productive meetings with football clubs over the past month to discuss bookings for the upcoming months and into the new year. The project is looking to expand its educational offering into Cricket, Rugby and Netball during the 2024/25 season, and is working closely with national and local governing bodies to enable a significant growth for the project. As part of Maccabi GB’s collaboration with the Football Association in summer 2024 we published the ‘Guide to the Jewish community in Great Britain’ which has been shared with Football Clubs across the country, alongside the new ‘Diversity and Inclusion calendar for the 2024-25 season’ on which Maccabi GB has collaborated.
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