CHILD footballers as young as seven years old are regularly hit with racial abuse during matches, a new anti-discrimination group has said.
Vile "monkey chants" and Islamophobic abuse are among the discriminating behaviour some young football players experience out on the pitch across the country.
The Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Football Forum (BFF) has begun to seek out the vile abuse some kids deal with at football matches.
Vice chair Ahmed Maravia, chief executive of the Community Football Academy, said some of his under-14s have previously left the pitch in tears because of abuse – despite winning the game.
Maravia's players are described as "mostly Muslim" and have experienced verbal racial slurs thrown their way, such as the "P-word".
'THEY JUST WANT TO PLAY FOOTBALL'
The kids have previously been told by fellow players and coaches that they "should be blowing things up, not playing football".
He told BBC News: "Racist and Islamophobic remarks have been made and some of [them] don't understand, they're just little kids.
"They just want to play football."
Maravia said he heard "monkey chants" at an under-nines game.
He even said that a parent offered a banana to a child, shortly before saying they "should be used to it".
However despite the ongoing issue of racism, Maravia said providing evidence of it to the FA could be difficult.
He said: "(Those committing the abuse) don't do it in front of a match official.
"They're not going to say 'hey, referee, stop the game, I want to make a racist remark'."
The forum's chair Ivan Limburd said he hoped a survey about discrimination in football would lead to change and better education.
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