It was 28 years ago, 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.

Hinds successfully portrays the gradual breaking down of barriers by each generation of black players."
Ross Sheil, The Sunday Gleaner

Hinds, as you would expect from the sports editor of the Voice, highlights the battles these players went through to win respect and overcome stereotypes, often wrestling with their own questions of personal identity and national loyalty. In doing so he shines a light on the role they’ve played in changing football and, to some degree, changing society too. For all that, the author should be applauded, loudly.
... a valuable bit of football history ending with Hinds’ uplifting (if slightly exaggerated) assertion that “the stereotypes that sullied black players have been blown away”, that “it is no longer simply a matter of colour.
Matthew Brown, When Saturday Comes