Bailey Wright and Aji Alese were recently at the Beacon Of Light to support the Show Racism The Red Card campaign. Bailey believes we are heading in the right direction but we need to carry on stamping it out of the game.
SHOW RACISM THE RED CARD
"I didn't realise that Show Racism the Red Card was started up here in the North East, and it's incredible what the campaign has done and I'm sure it will continue doing its great work. From an Australian perspective, obviously I haven't lived there for 16 years, but you only have to look at our national team and the work being done with our PFAs and our governing bodies, to see how we want to improve our country. I think our national team at the World Cup was the most diverse national team we've ever had in Australia. I really felt that at this World Cup, with how diverse and multicultural the squad was, it really resembled the real Australia that we are living in.”
RIGHT DIRECTION
"Football is a sport that brings people together. Australia is still a really young country with a lot of people of different nationalities and people who have migrated out to Australia to live and enjoy the country, and when you look at where we have all come from it resonates with the nation. Just looking at it from a footballing perspective, if you think about how the game was, it has taken steps in the right direction."
KEEP LEARNING
"We know that racism is still happening - there are too many stories of it still happening, unfortunately - but as professional footballers, fans of the game, anyone associated with the sport, we have a role to play in improving the game and people like Gary and Bally laid the foundations and are continuing to play a part post their playing careers. Now it's people like Aji and myself who are playing now, and we are in dressing rooms where people are more educated about racism and it doesn't occur in the way that maybe it did several years ago. From that perspective, it's definitely going in the right direction but we have to continue learning and developing.”
BEAUTY OF THE GAME
"If you look at our dressing room and the different nationalities, different colours, different languages we all speak, that's the beauty of our game - it brings people from all over the world for a common goal, which is to represent Sunderland AFC."
