Former Gillingham goalkeeper Jason Brown has told KSN how he was subject to racism by opposing fans in his time at the club and in recent weeks.

The 30 year now plys his trade for Scottish Premier League side Aberdeen and the Wales international has been outspoken in the past week about the role of the FA, the PFA and Kick It Out in stamping racism out of the national game.

Like a lot of high profile footballers over the weekend including Rio Ferdinand and Jason Roberts, Brown has stepped up above the parapet to have his say about how racism is still rife in this country and how he has been abused both in the past and even within the past few weeks.

In an exclusive interview with Kent Sports News, Brown reveals how he was subject of racist abuse in his time at Gillingham, how he feels the authorities have fallen a long way short in making racism a real issue and what he believes needs to happen for the game to progress in the long term.

Over the weekend a whole raft of players have refused to wear the Kick It Out campaign T-shirts to show their disapproval at what has been going on both nationally and internationally regards racism and Brown told KSN how he felt it was right that all players should have their say:

“It’s sad that we’ve come to a point where we have players that are having to do other peoples’ jobs. We’ve trusted in them to do it, but they’re incapable of doing it.”

“Kick It Out is funded by the FA, the Premier League and the PFA, so they’re very limited in what they can do and say which goes against the point of what they’re about. They should be able to speak up in incidents like we’ve got and like we’ve had over the years.”

“They clearly can’t and it’s deeply saddening. It’s especially saddening that the Chairman of Kick It Out (Lord Herman Ouseley), came out with statements like he did the other day where he told me that he’s not here to speak up for black professional football players who are wealthy.”

“Until now, I didn’t know what Kick It Out stood for, and I’m sure a lot of people didn’t. Now it has been myself, Jason and Rio voicing our concerns that have shown what they are supposed to do and what they haven’t done.”

“That’s a clear indication there needs to be a change.”

In 2012, most fans would be right in thinking life on the terraces has seen a vast improvement in England since the 70’s and 80’s where black footballers were subject to monkey chanting and racist abuse from their own fans, but Brown believes racism is still rife:

“Without a doubt. That’s why I’m so passionate about it. I’m not getting paid to speak up about it, I’m doing it as it’s something that matters to me. I’ve received racial abuse and it’s not nice.”

“I don’t think in the 21st century we should still be putting up with it. It’s not just black people, it’s every race.”

Brown left Gillingham for Blackburn Rovers in the summer of 2006 after five years at the club which saw him make 137 appearances, becoming the club’s first choice keeper and a real fan’s favourite.

Whilst at Gillingham though, Brown was subject to racist abuse and it’s something that he will never forget:

“I never received any abuse from Gillingham fans and they were always great with me, but in a game I played for Gillingham against Chesterfield I suffered racial abuse from one of the Chesterfield supporters.”

“That was my first encounter of it in professional football. I reported it and the manager of Chesterfield at the time came to me in the dressing room after the game and apologised for whatever had taken place and that he’d do his utmost to try and find the culprit.”

“In terms of getting support from union, from what was then Kick Racism Out of Football, the FA, I didn’t get any support.”

“There are players of all ages still receiving racist abuse from among their team-mates, but they’re too scared to say anything as they don’t want to be labelled as a trouble-maker or they don’t want to compromise their place in the team.”

“This is what this is all about. They should be able to go to someone and someone should be there to speak up for them and there’s not and that’s shocking.”

The recent case between Mark McCammon and Gillingham Football Club saw the striker take the club to tribunal with damages being awarded in excess of £60,000 in total and Brown told KSN how cases like that have highlighted how the PFA need to do more to support the players they are meant to be representing:

“The PFA are supposed to be there for the players and from what I gather, they were trying to get him to take an out of court settlement. As a union rep, when it comes to racial abuse, it’s not about money.”

“Racism isn’t about money, racism is about innocent people being treated differently on and off the pitch and if your union rep is saying that you should take an out of court settlement, it suggests that they devalue racism.”

“From what I understand, Mark received less money than he was offered from the out of court settlement, but it wasn’t about money for Mark.”

“That shows that they believe money can smooth these things over. They believe it’s a case of just saying sorry and getting on with it, but it’s not as easy as that.”

“I’m not saying anyone was racist as I don’t know all the ins and outs of the case, but when the people you are hoping that will help and support you the most, tell you to take the money and an apology and be on your way, that’s shocking.”

Last week saw England Under 21 defender Danny Rose the subject of racial abuse from Serbia fans with the football community quick to come out and criticise the actions of some so called supporters, but for Brown, those in authority need to do more:

“When the incident happened last week, the PFA couldn’t jump in quick enough condemning Serbia and rightly so, but the PFA have left themselves open for Serbia to say, hold on, why don’t you get your own house in order before you start pointing fingers.”

“It’s not just black players that suffer racial abuse. It may seem that black players are the target for more abuse, but we need to remember that racism comes in all forms. Clearly if these people remain in authority and are not doing their jobs, then something has to give.”

“Whether that be a breakaway for our own union or whether it is new people in authority, something has to give. The PFA and Kick It Out have been speaking with four players for the past year and these players have given them suggestions, but nothing has got done.”

“All they seem to do is be keen on promoting T-shirts. I know they get mimimal money, but to speak costs nothing. We should be using the money from the T-shirts to hire someone to go up and down the country to speak with players.”

“They are being reactive and not proactive. Now players are beginning to voice their opinions, there is a panic going on and not knowing what to do.”

“The FA could have done the whole thing with John Terry a lot sooner than they did, the police even came out and said that. Everyone can see that for what it is.”

“It was interesting to see what the Chelsea Chairman and Chief Executive had to say when they said it has overshadowed last season’s success and it has done.”

“They then went and issued a record fine, which means nothing in the end. These are just token gestures for me.”

Now plying his trade for Aberdeen in the Scottish Premier League, Brown told KSN how racism didn’t appear to be as rife north of the border, but once again he was subject to racist abuse via twitter with the police now involved:

“I received an horrendous racist tweet about a week ago and the Welsh police were fantastic. They were sharp and proactive and when you see that happening it makes you believe that they do care.”

“The Welsh FA have been superb too and I’ve been involved with them for the past eleven years. In that time I have had two incidents and they have been nothing but supportive.”

“The lad that racially abused me on the tweet is from Aberdeen and since the Welsh Police have taken my statement and passed it on the Grampian Police, I didn’t hear from them until Saturday night.”

“I’m sure that they will deal with it in the right way though.”

Where football goes now is anyone’s guess. For Brown, he is adamant that the game as whole needs to evolve and changes need to be made otherwise we will all be discussing this same issue in decades to come:

“What’s wrong with having adverts during games about kicking racism out of football? We could have more made of it during ad breaks when games are on Sky. There needs to be more education and until the other day even I didn’t know Lord Ouseley was.”

“The FA and the PFA need to be more proactive about the whole racism issue. The only time I ever heard from the FA when I was at Gillingham was when I had done an interview with The Independent. Sven Goran Eriksson was the manager at the time and I said the FA were prioritising what he was doing in his private life, more so than that was going on on the pitch in terms of racist abuse.”

“A day or two after that came out, I had a letter from the FA, not asking me what happened, or that they were sorry I had suffered racial abuse, but saying that they didn’t appreciate my comments about the national manager and if I were to repeat it, I would be likely to be called up to see them.”

“I rang the guy and told him not to send me letters like that ever again as he was sitting there up in his office and knows nothing about racism.”

“Every league is now blessed with players from different races, different cultures and different religions, but they’re still not doing enough.”

“What we need now is someone who is outspoken to deal with this as there are a lot of trust issues with players and bridges need to be built.”

Football is now once again at a crossroads, where it turns is anyone’s guess.