Football has to be a fair game for everyone - level playing field

Owain Davies, the CEO of Level Playing Field, addressed the Football APPG on Tuesday 10 February to preview the organisation’s upcoming Unite for Access campaign. Below is the speech he gave…

THE beautiful game and its immense power to unite, include and empower this can never be underestimated. However, we continue to witness levels of inequality in sport that are simply unacceptable.

Yes, there has been progress, but progress alone is not enough. Too often, access is treated as an optional extra rather than a basic requirement for a humane, inclusive experience. Real accessibility is still not universally delivered.

The opportunity in front of us is significant, but it requires seriousness. It requires unity. And it requires us to use all the powers available to us to deliver access and inclusion, not in theory, but in practice.

Let’s be clear: this is not about asking for special treatment. It is not about asking for the earth. It is about dignity. It is about human rights. And it is about a fair opportunity to participate in public life.

Today is about challenging complacency and highlighting when it works the impact this has.

If one of your constituents faced a barrier that excluded them from sport, from community, from belonging, what would you do? If that person was a family member? Or if, in time, that person was you?

Because the reality is this: large proportion of disabled people are more likely to acquire an impairment during their lifetime than be born with one. With an ageing population and people living longer, this is not a marginal issue, it is a growing one. And unless we act meaningfully, the inequality we see today will deepen.

What we need now is not small adjustments at the edges, but a shift that places legal obligations front and centre, particularly for service providers, and in this case, football clubs.

We already accept that if a stadium is not safe, it cannot open. Yet if it is not accessible, we tolerate exclusion. That inconsistency allows discrimination to persist.

So today, I ask everyone in this room to engage fully to contribute, to challenge, and to be bold. Because when standards improve, communities are reflected in the stands, families can attend together, and disabled supporters can unite behind their team like anyone else.

This is more than a game. And it must be a fair game for everyone.

Fair Game is the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Football to find out more about the membership and upcoming sessions of the Group click here.