FC Barcelona and UNESCO against racial discrimination

Barcelona (FCB).- Every March 21st the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is celebrated and the FC Barcelona Foundation and UNESCO wish to reaffirm their stand against this scourge.

Campaign “Put Racism Offside"

To demonstrate the commitment of both organizations, this Monday, a spot will be launched featuring Leo Messi, Seydou Keita and Gerard Pique in which the three FC Barcelona players paint a large graffiti containing the campaign slogan "Put Racism Offside”.

Through this spot UNESCO and Barça wish to underline that combating racism is a responsibility of each and every one of us, hence, the call addressed by the players.  To increase the outreach and possible impact, the piece, produced for Barça TV, contains phrases in Catalan, Spanish, English and French.

Active fight against racism since 2007

The campaign launched on March 21^st 2010 is the most recent initiative in the partnership between the FC Barcelona Foundation and UNESCO. Several European cities members of ECCAR (European Coalition of Cities Against Racism) have participated therein with various awareness-raising events targeting youth.

The UNESCO/FCB collaboration started in 2007 with the program Youth Voices Against Racism. The recommendations from a series of consultations among young people from ECCAR member cities on how to counteract racism through municipal action were then presented to the European Parliament. As a result of this pioneering initiative, the clubs belonging to ECA (European Club Association) agreed, in 2009, to promote anti-racist clauses in footballers’ contracts.