Hate Crime Reporting

Grimsby Town FC and Grimsby Town Foundation is a new Community Hate Crime Reporting Centre.

Community hate crime reporting centres provide a valuable service to help people report their concerns about hate crime and harassment, particularly where they may not feel confident to approach the Police or Council directly. There are a number of voluntary and community sector organisations in Grimsby who are hate crime reporting centres. Together, they support a wide and diverse range of community members.

What is a hate crime?

The Police and Crown Prosecution Service have agreed a common definition of hate incidents – this is any incident that the victim or anyone else thinks was motivated by hostility or prejudice based on one of the following personal characteristics:

• Disability (including physical disability, sensory impairments, learning disabilities, mental ill-health, long term illness or health conditions) Race or ethnicity
• Religion or belief
• Sexual orientation (for example lesbian, gay or bisexual people)
• Transgender identity (for example trans, women or men or gender reassignment)

Hate incidents can be verbal abuse, like name-calling or offensive jokes; bullying or intimidation; physical attacks; threats; online abuse for example on social media; displaying or circulating discriminatory literature; damage to your home or possessions; or abuse of friendships – this is sometimes called “mate crime”.

When hate incidents become criminal offences they are known as hate crimes. Hate incidents often escalate to crimes or tension in a community. For this reason the Police are concerned about hate incidents as well as hate crimes. The Police can only prosecute when the law is broken but they can work with the Council and other partners to try and prevent any escalation in seriousness.

If you are attending any home match days and you have received or been witness to, or have any concerns about any Hate incident, you can call or text directly to the club hotline number 07498926776 giving your location within the stadia, or email [email protected]

You can also contact the Club Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer by email, [email protected] (EDI Vikki Harries)
Or The Stadium Manager David White on [email protected] or by phone to 01472 605050

Reporting for players and staff

For players and staff who want to report an incident of discrimination or inappropriate behaviours on match day/non-match day, the procedure is to escalate the matter to the Chief Executive Officer. This can be done in person or in writing via emailing.

Communication

Grimsby Town FC are committed to communicating, when appropriate, incidents relating to discrimination or inappropriate behaviours to its supporters and the general public in order to reduce the incidence of such occurrences.

The club will use every means to ensure that anyone associated with the club is aware of what is considered to be unacceptable behaviour on match days and non-match days. Communication on match days will also be provided in the club match day programme, through the stadium public address system and via the stadium video screen and concourse TVs.

In the event of a serious breach of the club’s safeguarding or anti-discrimination policies, communication to the general public will be made following consultation with the Football League/FA or when deemed necessary through taking legal advice.

Any further communication will be conducted through our official website, www.gtfc.co.uk or alternatively through statements which will be communicated to the Press and Humberside Police.

Grimsby Town FC would like to emphasise that we operate a zero tolerance policy on discrimination of any sort. Anyone found to be in breach of this rule will receive a lifetime banning order. Any reported acts of disciplinary conduct by club’s supporters are also highly likely to lead to formal disciplinary action by the FA under rule E20.

You can also use the Kick it Out reporting app which provides users with the ability to attach video, photo and audio evidence to complaints to help support investigations into discriminatory abuse and behaviour.

The free Kick It Out app can be downloaded NOW from Google Play or the App store.

Discrimination Statement

Grimsby Town FC and Grimsby Town Foundation is a diverse organisation that values difference and recognises that people with different backgrounds, skills, attitudes and experiences bring fresh ideas and perceptions. Grimsby Town Football Club take great care to treat each individual as a person in their own right, with equal rights and responsibilities to any other individual, whether they are an adult or a child. We are committed to providing equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice for all players, officials, staff, fans, members of the community, partners and other stakeholders according to their individual needs. Discrimination on the grounds of sex, age, race, religion or belief, marriage or civil partnership, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, pregnancy or maternity, ethnic or national origin or political belief has no place within the Club.

All members of staff at Grimsby Town Football Club are committed to implementing this policy and to promoting its aims within the wider communities in which we operate. Grimsby Town FC is committed to a programme of action to make this policy fully effective.

Under the leadership of Polly Bancroft (CEO), who will hold overall responsibility for the co-ordination and implementation of Equality Policy development and for identifying new priorities through regular assessment reviews. Grimsby Town FC will assess the impact of existing policies, practices and procedures at regular intervals, to evaluate the effectiveness and success of our activities. Through regular consultation with all our partners, monitoring and review process, equality will be mainstreamed into our wider business strategy.

Grimsby Town FC is committed to providing each employee, potential employee, customer and service-users equality of opportunity across all areas of the club’s operation. Grimsby Town FC will ensure that equality practices are integral to every process and create an inclusive and positive environment for all.

Should you encounter any form of discrimination when visiting the Blundell Park Stadium, please could you report it to us with as much information as possible. You can report incidents to the club by texting our reporting hotline 07498926776, by using the Kick It Out reporting app or by emailing [email protected].

With your help, we can help beat discrimination. 

Grimsby Town FC are proud to support the work of the following organisations in making football as inclusive as possible.

Kick it Out
Website – http://www.kickitout.org/
Twitter – @kickitout
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/kickitoutofficial

Level Playing Field
Website – http://www.levelplayingfield.org.uk/
Twitter – @lpftweets
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/lpftweets

Show Racism The Red Card
Website – http://www.srtrc.org/
Twitter – @SRTRC

Equality & Human Rights Commision (EHRC)
Website – http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/about-us/about-commission/our-vision-and-mission
Twitter – @EHRC
Facebook – https://en-gb.facebook.com/equalityhumanrights