The Kent FA have held their first-ever Celebrating Diversity in Football Conference.

Held in association with Black History Month, the conference welcomed coaches and members of the football workforce to the Village Hotel in Maidstone and is set to become an annual event.

It aimed to promote a more inclusive and diverse footballing community across the county through empowering and inspiring the present and next generation of coaches, workforce, volunteers, players, and officials across Kent.

Hosted by professional sports presenter and broadcaster Kweku Afari, it began with an opening speech from the Kent FA’s workforce and participation lead, David Webb.

He said: “We are excited by the opportunity that tonight’s event creates, through celebration, collaboration, and inspiration to further highlight and strive towards the importance of more diversity within Kent’s grassroots football community.”

Afari hosted two panels of special guests from across Kent and the football industry.

The first panel, featuring Maidstone United manager George Elokobi and assistant boss Craig Fagan, discussed the current landscape of diversity in football in the professional game.

The second panel, comprising Anwar Uddin, diversity and inclusion manager at the FA, and Troy Townsend, head of player engagement at Kick It Out, discussed how to tackle equality in the football community.

Kent FA chief executive Darryl Haden said: “Hosting events like these are incredibly important in our journey to make the game (free) from discrimination.

“We must ensure that we continue to develop and provide opportunities for more diversity among our players, our referees, our coaches, and our club administrators as well as ensuring that we provide dedicated support to all of these stakeholders.

“We recognise that we have more to do within the equality, diversity, and inclusion space – we are not perfect by any means, but it is important to take stock of what we have achieved, reflect and learn from those achievements to ensure that we keep driving our work in equality and diversity forward.”

Les Marshall, a grassroots coach from Kings Hill FC and the Tonbridge & Malling district team, was among the 46 attendees.

He said: “I thought all the speakers were excellent.

“The way they all spoke about their experiences was both moving and shocking.

“There has been plenty of coverage regarding the issues discussed at the event, but hearing it directly from the victims, it is very impactful.”

The conference is part of a much larger programme of work the Kent FA are planning, collaborating, and delivering on to support diversity and inclusion for their coaches, volunteers, workforce, officials, and players.