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With racism, homophobia and mental health issues all on the rise in football, Rio is done talking about things and tokenistic campaigning and wants to create real change. Rooted in a personal drive to understand, unpack and tackle the problems, Rio wants to meet people from across the game to change the landscape for future generations.
For the past 2 years Rio been on a personal journey to try to understand why is football racist? Why change hasn’t happened? Why has it got worse?
In January 2021, of the estimated 125K Professional players in the men’s game there was 1 openly gay man. Why is the men’s game, being left in the dark ages in the face of such wider positive progress in the LGBTQ+ movement. Rio shows his own vulnerabilities and personal flaws as he embarks on a journey to understand and educate.
Only 0.012% of players playing organised youth football make it to play in the Premier League. Rio aims to shine a light on the realities surrounding academy football and how mental health issues surrounding released players is at epidemic levels. 99.9% of players have their dreams and everything they’ve sacrificed, worked and lived for taken away in an instant.
