Standing Firm: Football’s Windrush Story will premiere on 28 September
BT Sport has announced that Standing Firm: Football’s Windrush Story will premiere on BT Sport 3 at 10.30pm on 28 September.
It will also be available on the BT Sport app and website after airing.
The documentary film features interviews with the likes of Tyrone Mings, Rio and Anton Ferdinand, Andy Cole, David Lammy and Hope Powell, and focuses on the legacy of the Windrush generation, their descendants, and continued Caribbean migration to the UK in English football and the national team.
Players of Caribbean heritage such as Kalvin Phillips, Jadon Sancho and Raheem Sterling helped England to the final of Euro 2020 this summer, and the film aims to celebrate how the current players are fighting against racism in football and wider society.
Benjamin Zephaniah narrates as the film documents the history of West Indian communities in the UK, celebrating the pioneers who paved the way for black footballers in the UK. He has also released a poem to mark the release, which you can watch below.
Luther Blissett, Cyrille Regis, Clyde Best, Brendon Batson, Laurie Cunningham and Viv Anderson are among those who will be mentioned before it explores the growing impact Caribbean heritage had on modern English football and the national side in the 1990s with ever increasing numbers of professional players with family ties to the Caribbean, including Ian Wright, Les Ferdinand and Paul Ince who, in 1993, became the first black player to captain England.
Standing Firm will then look at how football is now at the forefront of the fight against racism, and how black coaches can be given a fair chance whilst also hearing from the players about what they feel needs to change to combat racial discrimination in football.
Sally Brown is executive producer, with Theo Brown producing-directing, and Brown said: Arthur Torrington (co-founder of the Windrush Foundation) is consultant on the project. Brown said: “This film aims to shine an overdue light on how the Windrush generation changed our national game. So much has been said about the Windrush generation’s impact on areas of British life such as the NHS, and with this film viewers will gain an insight from Windrush pioneers about their families’ journeys on and off the field, and, of their place in football today. I’m delighted that this film will kick off a Black History month on BT Sport.”
Luther Blissett, Cyrille Regis, Clyde Best, Brendon Batson, Laurie Cunningham and Viv Anderso
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