Townsend leaves a lasting legacy after departing Kick It Out

When England lost to Iceland in their final match before the start of EURO 2024, the back pages and online news portals mostly featured images of Bukayo Saka, the Arsenal winger who had only been on the pitch for the latter stages of the game.

After being vilified when he missed England’s last penalty that ultimately handed Italy the EURO 2020 title, Saka has shown dignity and talent consistently to underline his status as both a fine footballer and a great role model.

There was understandable uproar at the use of his image after such a negligible role in the Iceland defeat from the likes of Ian Wright and Kick It Out, the anti-discrimination charity, who called on the media to remember their responsibilities and not make England’s black players scapegoats when results do not go well.

One man synonymous with Kick it Out is Troy Townsend, who in his role as Head of Player Engagement has spent more than a decade fighting prejudice and working to educate players, coaches and clubs of their responsibilities and how to address the ongoing issue of discrimination within the game.

After failing to make the grade as a professional after spells with Millwall and Crystal Palace, Troy started working as a volunteer for the charity in 2011 having a sports development company for schools and running his own football academy.

Photo courtesy of Troy Townsend

When former Manchester City and Aston Villa defender Earl Barrett moved on from the charity, Troy was offered the chance to take over his role and explained: “As I learned and understood the organisation, I really felt I could make a difference. We had a program that people would request, called ‘Leading the Way,’ which was trying to get more people from under-represented backgrounds into the game.

“Because of my background in education and my understanding of young people, I connected very closely with Earl and I worked on that project with him to deliver it.

“I have delivered a series of events called ‘Raise Your Game’ which is the new name for the ‘Leading the Way’ when I took over the mentoring element from Earl.

“We’ve had so many great people at these events, whether it's from media, refereeing, sports science, the business of football and coaches. Every time I put on an event like that, I feel that the engagement and the outcomes are massive and the rewards are there.

“So many people have gone on to work in the industry and it’s proof that football does give back. I'm very grateful to have headed up that program for such a long time.

“I've delivered 100 plus sessions this season alone, called ‘Equality Inspires’, going into clubs from the ages of nine all the way through to under-21s. As well as the players, I educate staff and the parents.

Kick It Out was established in 1993 and relies on funding from the stakeholders that it often holds to account, such as the Football Association (FA) and the Premier League, amid increasing abuse for players on social media as well as on the terraces.

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Troy has become a regular spokesperson on the challenges that remain. He added: “As I've grown in the organisation, I've become more prominent as someone that speaks out on these issues.

“The media would always come to me and want to know my opinion. Every single time that I can support somebody, whether they be in the professional arena, the grassroots arena, whether it's parents, or people that work in the game, I lend my support right across the board.

“This season alone has seen some pretty horrible comments and I'm there all the time being the supportive figure to an individual that has been discriminated against.

“It's making sure that things are being dealt with in the right way. I also have to hold authority figures accountable, and there have been incidents where we don't think that the authorities have dealt with them in the correct way.

“It's led to some very dark days. It's led to some questions of why would I even continue?“

One such incident revolved the court case brought by QPR defender Anton Ferdinand amid accusations of racism by Chelsea captain John Terry and comments Troy made in a documentary revolving the controversy.

“When the Anton Ferdinand documentary came out in 2020, the FA accused me of almost faking information,” Troy explained.

“The wealth support I've got at that time was unbelievable. There were a couple of other situations  where clubs threatened to sue me just because I got the information right and held people to account.

“There are still those critical voices, the people that don't want to understand, that don't want to appreciate the amount of work that we do, that don't want to understand the amount of funding we get as a small resource organisation.

“The journey has been a proper roller coaster. I seem to be the buffer for a lot of people's anger in this space. There's people out there that think that we should have eliminated racism and discrimination by now despite what happens in society.”

Troy was awarded the MBE for services to ‘diversity and inclusion in association football’ last year and will now be taking a step back from the front line after announcing his decision to depart at the end of June.

“I will continue to deliver the education into clubs and I'm very grateful to be able to still have a connection to game. But now I need to detangle and become a little bit freer. I'm not getting any younger and we all have to look after that space upstairs, don't we?”

After working tirelessly for the good of others, Troy certainly deserves a rest.