PR agency EBBE COMMS will host a conference on 20 October in Sarajevo on discrimination and inclusion in football joined by the football representatives, government officials, NGOs and other media agencies.

The conference is the closing event of the ‘My Football’ media campaign that addresses a range of topics around the participation and inclusion of visible and non-visible minorities in football (ethnic minorities, the LGBT community, women and the disabled) and draws attention to the increasing number of cases of hate speech and nationalism in football stadiums across Europe.

The campaign and conference are one of the 14 highlight events of the Football People weeks.

On social media ‘My Football’ gave visibility to groups often subjected to discrimination or exclusion and served as platform to share personal stories. At the conference the videos will be shared to trigger debates around the issues addressed.

Attending the conference will be Piara Powar, Executive Director at Fare, Jasmin Bakovic from the Football Association of Bosnian and Herzegovina, Dennis Gratz and Damir Masic representatives of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sabrina Buljubasic, Azra Numanovic and Zoran Vukovic from the football clubs FK Sarajevo, SFK 2000 Sarajevo (Bosnian and Herzegovina) and FK Breznica (Montenegro) respectively, Jelena Celebic from the NGO Tim FemSlam LGBT fudbal (Serbia) and Vahid Beganovic from the Bosnian and Herzegovina National Roma Team and NGOs.

Participants will be involved in the panel discussions to debate the topics ‘Discrimination, nationalism and the role of media’ and ‘Discrimination in football: gender, LGBT, Roma and disability’.