Video: Why discrimination is the silent enemy of sports clubs

Discrimination makes playing sport feel like climbing a mountain. You can see the top, but you give up because it's too hard. On the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, we launched a sneak preview of the Sentry Sport video, which urges people playing in sports clubs around the world to speak up against discrimination in sport. Now, you can watch the full video above.

Discrimination is the silent enemy of sports clubs worldwide. Here are just a few reasons why:

• It destroys confidence, motivation and enjoyment, causing victims to drop out of their sport
• It discourages other participants who witness discrimination and harassment
• It costs sport clubs in terms of lost members, helping another enemy of grassroots sport grow: lack of money

What does it mean to "Be a SENTRY" in the video? It means to speak up about discrimination in sport and to have the confidence to stand up for your teammates and say when things are not ok in your club.

ISCA is the communications partner of Italian sport for all organisation UISP's Sentry Sport project. Visit the official website here.

Video credits:
Kristine Onarheim, ISCA - directing, filming, editing
Hilal Erkoca Mølgaard, ISCA - concept, script and acting (Alice)
Jovanche Nedelkovski, ISCA - script and acting (Jo)
SENTRY Sport partners - concept

UISP explains more about the project:

The Sentry Sport project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission and coordinated by UISP, was born in 2021. The project developed a series of materials to help organisations create monitoring projects, education and training programmes for sports managers, coaches and referees, and a series of tips for stakeholders and policy makers who would like to tackle the issue. Last but not least, the video above tells three emblematic stories of people who had to give up their favourite sport because they were victims of stereotypes and prejudices.

The project has been carried out by a consortium of NGOs, sports associations and international networks that in various ways work to combat all forms of discrimination in our societies and in sport: VIDC (Austria), International Sport and Culture Association - ISCA (Denmark) European Forum for Urban Security – EFUS (France), Koinsep En Drasei (Greece), Red Deporte y Cooperación (Spain).