"no more red"
Arsenal spelar i helvitt i helgen.
Va?
Jodå. Gunners kommer att springa ut på Emirates Stadium i helvita tröjor. Man kan ju tycka att helvitt- det lämnar vi åt det vilje- , tröfé- och karaktärslösa laget i den andra delen av norra London, men just denna gång handlar det om "the greater good".
I en kampanj mot våld mot unga, så gör Arsenal FC en markering. Kampanjen kallas "no more red" och handlar självfallet om den blodspillan som sker bland ungdomar och det våld som eskalerar. Vi ser det i Sverige dagligen och i den stad jag själv bor i har det fullkomligt exploderat under 2021 på ett fullkomligt vettlöst och tragiskt sätt.
I kampanjen "no more red" så vill Arsenal ta avstånd från detta och i diverse intervjuer på hemsidan och hos Adidas- som tagit fram tröjan, så pratar Emile Smith-Rowe och Ainsley Maitland-Niles, som båda är uppvuxna i ett London,präglat av våld bland ungdomar och där de själva sett kompisar, släktingar och skolkamrater bli utsatta för våld, knivskärningar och hot. Mellan juni 2020 och juni 2021 var det över 10,000 fall av knivskärningar i London. Det högsta någonsin och tillsammans med notabla figurer som Idris Elba och Ian Wright så trycker man ut kampanjen hårt.
Några ytterligare mål med kampanjen är
*Investing in creating and refurbishing safe spaces to play football – starting with the pitch on Harvist Estate just minutes away from Emirates Stadium
*Creating a No More Red mentorship scheme where young people doing positive work in the community will be supported by creative talent including Idris Elba, Ian Wright, DJ Emerald Rose Lewis and artist Reuben Dangoor among others
*Providing access to its talent network who will make regular contributions to Arsenal in the Community programmes that provide a wide range of training, quality spaces, positive role models and tangible opportunities for young people.
Emile Smith-Rowe minns ett tillfälle 2019, då en kille var på väg till en Arsenal-match, men kom inte dit då han blivit knivmördad på vägen och detta berör honom mycket i en intervju. "I remember that well..."
"If I did not play football, what would I have done? Where would I be right now? Sometimes I do think about it.I feel like at that time there was definitely a turning point for me. My friends were doing different things, maybe doing things they should not have been doing.I know how tough it is as a young person growing up in an area like that. It is hard to say no sometimes because you don’t know what else to do. That is when my family came together and told me, 'This is not what you want to be doing'.They helped me through that.
My friends were doing some crazy stuff. It was not nice to see at the time. There were some of them who were also good at football. It was annoying that I could not help them, but they were already a bit too far in. There was nothing I could do. I moved out of south London when I was about 13. Even then, I had friends doing different stuff as well. It was quite difficult but my family always pulled me out of it at the right time.I feel a bit lucky having football.It was kind of like my way out."
"No more red" - En tänkvärd kampanj.
