Promoting Racial Equality within Sports Organizations

Abstract

In an attempt to promote racial equality policies in national sports organizations in England, the Racial Equality Charter for Sport was introduced in 2000. This article reports on progress in achieving the associated Standard in different sports and different levels of sport. Questionnaires and interviews suggest that there has been some measure of success but that this has been slow and is vulnerable to personnel change and competing demands on resources. The article also adopts a critical sociological approach to the structures of sport to examine the limitations on the success of those interventions to conclude that more than organizational change is required—cultures need to change to become more inclusive.