Black Lions: A History of Black Players in English Football - Tapa dura

successfully portrays the gradual breaking down of barriers by each generation of black players. (Ross Shiel The Sunday Gleaner)

It was in 1978, that Viv Anderson became the first black player to be selected for England. It is a measure of how life for black footballers has improved that in 2002 Arsenal could field nine non-white players at Leeds’ Elland Road ground without comment. A tenth, Jermaine Pennant, came on as a substitute. While it would be wrong to claim that racism has been entirely banished from English football, the problem is not as bad as on the European continent. Rodney Hinds, sports editor of The Voice, Britain’s leading black newspaper, examines the attitudes of the football establishment over the years and talks to players who had to suffer abuse from visiting fans and players, and sometimes their own team-mates.