BACKGROUND:

Racism has long plagued the beautiful game of football. And that was pulled into sharp focus when England lost to Italy in the European Championships final when three black players who missed penalties – Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka & Jason Sancho – all received a torrent of racist abuse online, with people trolling their Instagram pagers, spreading hate on Twitter, and even defacing the Marcus Rashford mural in his hometown.

‘Show Racism the Red Card’ are the UK’s reading anti-racism educational charity. With The World Cup approaching all eyes would be on the England squad once again and with emotions running high, sparking fears of fresh racist attacks, they needed to act.

CREATIVE IDEA:

We know that England is celebrated for its rich diversity, and this is reflected across the national football team -but, it has never been celebrated to its full extent. There’s no bigger sporting event than the World Cup. And this idea tapped into the entire England fan base during the tournament with a powerful message – one that fought against the racism plaguing the game, as well as being a visual totem for the nation to get behind.

Cold hard data - it’s not normally visual, tangible, or interesting for the average person on the street. In this project we unearthed data that could help fight a problem plaguing football – racism. And applied it in an innovative way that the public couldn’t ignore, could rally behind and feel proud about.

The England team wouldn’t be what it is today without immigration. After conducting research on the entire squad, we found almost every player had a story of migration – covering all corners of the globe from North America, the Caribbean, all the way to New Zealand. We took this data and visualised it for the world to see.

Introducing ‘Fabric of England’, a football shirt constructed from the national shirts of the 14 countries linked to the England squad. The patchwork quilt design acted as a visual infographic to raise awareness and educate people to the rich diversity that makes up the squad, and the nation as a whole.

STRATEGY & INSIGHT:

The UK prides itself on its multi-culturalism. Whether it’s family ties tracing back to Ireland, or arriving from further afield with the Windrush generation, millions of Brits have their own personal stories of immigration – and the same can be said for the England team.

The cultural roots of players like Raheem Sterling, Kyle Walker and Jadon Sancho have been well documented in the press and the media, but little did people know that from the 39 players that got England to the World Cup, almost all of them have a story of migration – spanning 14 countries. This information had never been fully brought to the world’s attention.

A deep dive of data gathering was conducted on each of the 39 players, unearthing roots from 14 nations: England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, USA, Canada, Jamacia, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Barbados, St Vincent & Grenadines, St Kitts & Nevis, Nigeria, and New Zealand.

CRAFT & EXECUTION:

After collecting the heritage data from all 39 players we needed to source the respective national football shirts.

Each shirt was analysed to ascertain the best and most recognisable section to be used, and each section then painstakingly proportionally sized to accurately correspond to the data.  Each piece acted as a visual infographic, bringing to life the number of players that were associated to each country. For instance, there were many players who had roots in Jamaica and Ireland, so those sections of the panels were biggest to reflect the representation, whereas countries like New Zealand, Guyana and the USA only have one player linked to them so make up the smallest sections of the shirt.

Each shirt was then marked out, cut, and then carefully stitched back together to form the iconic patchwork quilt design that made up the ‘Fabric of England’ shirt, putting in plain view the amazing melting pot of cultures that makes England great, with a visual tapestry the nation could rally behind.

RESULTS:

‘Show Racism the Red Card’ exist to fight against racism in football and educate children to the problem. They rely on exposure and presence within arena of football, to ensure their message is heard loud and clear. ‘Fabric of England’ was a showpiece that took the issue of racism within football into a new and compelling space – reframing the conversation in a new and visually arresting way. It led to a 500% spike in engagement across their social channels and brought their message to millions of people around the world when used as a talking point during live coverage of the World Cup games.