Campaign tackles bias in sport

The frequent exclusion of people from sport on the basis of race, sex, disability or age was highlighted at the launch of a new poster campaign yesterday.

The six-poster campaign promotes inclusion within sporting activities with photographs of, for instance, a Nigerian badminton player, a nine-year-old golfer and a blind footballer. (The use of a bell in a football opens up the sport to people with visual disabilities.) The campaign is part of an overall sports inclusion programme developed by the Dublin Sports and Recreation Council through the Dublin City Development Board.

The posters will be sent to sports clubs, schools, leisure centres, businesses and State agencies in Dublin.

The campaign is being supported by people such as Irish rugby international Victor Costello, RTÉ sports broadcaster Des Cahill and boxer Michael Carruth. Sports clubs are being encouraged to sign up to the "Sports Inclusion Protocol", which is an undertaking to make a club or activity as welcoming and as inclusive as possible to everyone wishing to participate.

Launching the campaign, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Dermot Lacey, said sport was about much more than healthy living.

He said it was clear that something was wrong, when comparisons were drawn between the amount of money spent on sports and the amount spent on combating the effects of crime. More funding for sport would reduce the need for spending on crime measures, he said.

Mr Brendan Dowling, chair of the Dublin Sports and Recreation Council, said it was easy to reject someone for a sporting activity on the basis of a disability or a difference.

People were being excluded on a daily basis because of a lack of women's changing rooms, or language barriers, or rules which did not take account of different religions, Mr Dowling said. "A lot of people experience multi exclusions."

Sport could bridge difference, develop latent talent and help create a more inclusive society, he said. "This campaign is concerned with ensuring that clubs welcome participation from the young and the old, from all races and creeds and from all sections of society. It is about opening the doors of opportunity to all."