Liverpool To Host UN & Eradicate Hate Global Sports Working Group Summit

Liverpool FC will welcome over 100 representatives from elite sports across the UK and the US to Anfield this week for the United Nations and the Eradicate Hate Global Sports Working Group Summit.

In late 2022, the Premier League club became a member of the Eradicate Hate Global Sports Working Group, which works to deploy the powerful voices of sport to foster acceptance, mutual respect, and counter hate speech around the world. 

In December 2022, the UN & Eradicate Hate Global Summit Sports Working Group launched its Plan of Action for Sports: The Game Plan, with the high-level event at the UNHQ in New York City, USA, with the Liverpool’s senior equality, diversity, and inclusion manager, Rishi Jain, attending and announcing the club’s commitment to the plan.

The Game Plan is collaborative effort between the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect and the Eradicate Hate Global Summit aimed at exploring how to most effectively use the international love of sports teams and their athletes to counter the growing global proliferation of hate speech and by extension, extremism, and hate-fuelled violence.

The UN Eradicate Hate Sports Summit in the UK will bring together like-minded representatives from across football and the wider world of elite sport, with the aim of working together to learn and share best practice in their collective commitment to use sport as a method to tackle hate speech and ultimately prevent violence and atrocities.

Liverpool is committed to tackling the challenges that remain in sport and taking proactive steps to stop the escalation of hate speech and behaviours through its ongoing Red Together programme, which encompasses the club’s equality, diversity, and inclusion work.

Hosted by Sky Sports and BBC 5Live presenter, Kelly Cates, the event on Tuesday 25th April 2023, will include representatives from Premier League clubs, football authorities, and several major UK and US sports will come together at the event.

Speaking ahead of the event, the club’s senior equality, diversity, and inclusion manager, Rishi Jain, said: “We are looking forward to hosting this summit at Anfield. We were proud to be involved in the launch of The Game Plan at the end of last year and this is another step in the right direction in eradicating hate, not just from sports, but from society as a whole.

“Hosting this summit is a continued part of the club’s commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion and driving forward positive change. We look forward to welcoming representatives from across the world of sport to work together to collectively play our part in tackling hate speech.”