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West Ham’s ambassador to the east end community, ClaretandHugh’s Leroy Rosenior has revealed that the club has received several awards for its work amongst ethnic groups in the area.
Lee himself was taken on board by the club after joining CandH and the club are hugely appreciative of the work he does on behalf of the club in a multi cultural area.
And the new mayor of London Sadiq Khan made was at the recent award ceremony of which Lee is rightly very proud indeed .
He said: “It’s been brilliant to become a part of the work on behalf of the club and I’m grateful that Hugh made some introductions to make it happen. I work in the area for the club and in the schools as an ambassador.
“It’s what makes West Ham more than a football club – it is operating at so many different levels to bring people in the community together regardless of race or religion and the latest awards are testimony to that. It was great the new mayor of London should be there for us.”
Lee had some vicious experiences of racism as a young footballer back and now works ceaselessly to eradicate the problem wherever he finds it.
He said: “When I was 17. I was bending down to pick the ball up, with 10,000 Leeds United supporters doing the Nazi salute at me. You had the usual monkey chants too and people shouting, “you black bastard”.
“It was the norm and people treated it as banter. When players got upset about it they were accused of having a problem – the victim was seen as an accuser. If you wanted to be a professional footballer you had to have a thick skin. People said it was the same as being called fat.
“The worst incident for me was in Portsmouth when a little boy spat at me through the fence. The dad was standing next to him – he just laughed. But there were so many things that happened.
“Bananas were thrown, I think every black player got that. People thought it was funny, and because no one would stand up for you, you had to put up with it.
When I was spat at I spoke to my team-mates and explained this was something I put up with every day. They came to realise it was not just banter. People aren’t proud of it now; there has been some education.
“I work for Show Racism the Red Card and players share their experience with kids who come to our events. I’m proud of what the Hammers are doing in this area and to be a part of things.”