Major charity pulls out of working with Football Lads Alliance
John Meighan, the leading figure in the Football Lads Alliance announced on Friday that the charity “Walking with the Wounded have decided to pull out of working with the FLA”.
The charity that raises money for veterans changed its position after Stand Up To Racism approached them with concerns.
We pointed out that people with well known connections with the far right such as Toni Bugle and Mohan Singh had spoken at the initial FLA event in June this year.
We also informed them that following the horrific Parsons Green attack an increasing number of nasty, racist and Islamophobic posts appeared on the FLA facebook page.
In a reply to the FLA, Andrew Cook the charities Director of Fundraising, said “there are people in the FLA who appear to have or have had in the past leanings towards far right groups such as BNP and EDL or at the very least some unsavoury ideologies”.
John Meighan stated that “the screenshots they (Stand Up To Racism) produced (of recent posts) were racist, and leave me with no argument”.
He announced that the FLA would be bringing someone in next week to vet profiles: “from today will operate a zero tolerance to racist comments”.
That’s good. But it misses the main point.
If the FLA is really serious about distancing themselves from the hard racists they have to state now that the likes of Toni Bugle and Mohan Singh will not be able to speak at future events.
It also means that racist and Islamophobic statements shouldn’t be just tidied up on the facebook page, they need to be actively opposed.
It’s also frustrating that the response on the FLA facebook page is a stream of abusive comments directed at Stand Up To Racism’s joint secretary Weyman Bennett not at those who put up racist and Islamophobic posts!
Stand Up To racism do not believe that all those who plan to march on Saturday 7 October are racist or connected to the far right. We do not believe that football supporters are racists, just the opposite.
Over recent years the far right have been increasingly marginalised at grounds around Britain by initiatives from the clubs and supporters.
But it’s clear that some people are trying to use the FLA to push their political agenda and that’s why “Walking with the Wounded” have pulled back from the FLA.
The only real response to the attacks at Westminster, London Bridge, Manchester, Finsbury Park and Parsons Green is unity. Whether attacks are carried out by supporters of ISIS or the far right we all have to stand together.
It’s clear that some people posting on the FLA site want to blame all Muslims for the attacks. This needs to stop and the FLA has to answer the genuine concerns that we’ve raised.