Huddersfield Town supports the FA with Colour Blind Awareness
- Town backs the FA’s campaign
- Huddersfield Town aims to support Colour Blind Awareness
- Comments from Peter Gilliéron at UEFA
Look around you. Statistically one in 12 men and one in 200 women will be colour blind. Perhaps you are? Or maybe your son/daughter – or a friend who came with you to the game?
That equates to about 6% of today’s attendance. At a full 90,000-seater Wembley Stadium, that’s about 5,500 people.
Imagine not being able to differentiate between your team’s kit and the opposition’s? It would make enjoying the game a real challenge. If you’re colour blind, you’ll already be well aware.
In conjunction with Colour Blind Awareness (CBA) and UEFA, The FA has taken the lead in addressing the issue on behalf of the game.
Of course, the one-in-12 male ratio means there are possibly some colour-blind players on the field today. Among former professional players who had to cope with colour blindness is Matt Holland, who reveals: “In one particular match when we were in red and the opposition were in dark green I couldn't tell the colours apart. I had to really concentrate by looking at socks because they were easier for me to distinguish. There was nothing else I could do.”
Peter Gilliéron, Chairman of the UEFA Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee is fully behind The FA’s push to create awareness of the issue and ensure no-one is excluded from enjoying the greatest global team game: “Addressing the problem of colour blindness in football is long overdue. UEFA fully supports The FA’s work in this area. We intend to use its blueprint to advise the other 54 UEFA member associations on this important issue.”
The thought of exclusion is one taken up by FA chief executive Martin Glenn: “Our national game should welcome everyone. Age, religion, race, gender, ability/disability or sexual orientation – it really doesn’t matter. The FA has obtained advice from a leading expert in the field, confirming that colour blindness should be treated as a disability under the Equality Act 2010. Any club which does not recognise colour blindness as a disability under the Equality Act 2010 therefore does so at their own risk.”
To find out more, please read The FA’s guidance notes on colour blindness. For ways you can help maximise awareness, please visit the Colour Blind Awareness website: colourblindawareness.org
Together, let’s make sure football’s future is ‘For All’.
