Community Voices: “Everywhere we go, the feedback is the same – ‘Your fans are a joy!’”

Community Voices is an interview series where Michael Avila and Ani Kanakaki speak to a range of folks from the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland about the work they’re doing to bring about positive change. The series, formally known as #AtsUsNai, is produced in partnership with AvilaMedia and funded by the Community Relations Council. This week Michael and Ani caught up with Michael Boyd, Director of Football & Community Development for the Irish Football Association.

To say Michael Boyd is passionate about football would be an understatement. But what sets Michael apart is also his passion for community. As Director of Football and Community Development for the Irish Football Association, he has helped foster inclusivity through his work over the span of two decades.

For anyone not familiar with Northern Ireland, something as apparently innocent as sport can sometimes be the most divisive of things. The sporting world here can split according to sectarian lines. This is something Michael is passionate about tackling. He wants the sport of football to be something everyone in Northern Ireland can enjoy in a safe and shared space.

Football for all

Over the span of the peace process, Michael and his colleagues have transformed the face of football and renovated its stadium, embedding the image of the ‘Green & White Army’ that is now synonymous with Northern Ireland Football. He has facilitated projects in partnership with a multitude of statutory bodies to decrease sectarian elements that have plagued matches in the past. 

It’s not been a top-down effort. Michael gives credit to the unofficial fan website, ‘Our Wee Country’, who ran a public competition to create new songs free from sectarianism and instil a more family-friendly environment at games in the early days. Slowly, things started to change through the IFA’s EU Peace and NI Community Relations Council funded Football For All fan-driven initiatives, giving supporters ownership at the grassroots level to better the image of their team and increase their community impact.

It’s important to remember that the majority of traditional Northern Ireland fans did not support the minority of people that used football to further bigotry; in fact, the team was losing support from its traditional base in the early years of the peace process because of this minority. Due to the diligence of the Amalgamation of Official Northern Ireland Supporters Clubs and the work of Michael Boyd and his staff, it’s a very different story today.

In 2000, shortly after the peace agreement, Michael launched the ‘Football for All’ project. In the years that followed, the IFA would focus on youth work in the grassroots, bringing children together from all backgrounds, using football as the channel to tackle issues of sectarianism, racism and prejudice. Since its humble beginnings, the ‘Football for All’ campaign reached out to 31,000 young people in 2014 and has since more than double its impact to 70,000 as of 2019.

This transformation that was benefitting communities throughout NI was also being felt in the stands as well. Michael said over his period of time you could feel the ‘spirit’ of the crowd change – supporter’s clubs were springing up everywhere and you could really feel “a strengthened image, a sense of belonging – a ‘togetherness’ that wasn’t present in years prior.”

Michael, a Northern Ireland football historian in his own right, says the team’s most successful years had always reflected the communities of the time, and that those teams were closer to 50/50 representation across the communal divide. This shared community heritage is something he is immensely proud of.

“There was a period of two years where Northern Ireland didn’t even score a goal,” Michael recalls. “Usually when a team is performing poorly, support decreases.”

“But, during those two years, we actually saw 12 more supporters clubs start to crop up and our fan base increased! Transformation in the stands has led to a more positive transformation on the pitch!”

He explained that “we are more together than ever before and this is why, when you come to the National Football Stadium – which can only hold up to about 20,000 people, it feels like you’re in a stadium of 70,000, all cheering on the ‘Green and White Army’!”

The bigger picture

While the transformation, both in the community and in the stands, has been centred on football, it hasn’t stopped there. Michael realised that the issues are much bigger than football and began working in partnership with the Special EU Peace Programme Body on the ‘Sports Uniting Communities’ programme and developed a three-pronged project with the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and Ulster Rugby to harness the power of sport to promote Good Relations tackling sectarianism and racism.

The Foundation’s positive impact on society is felt in other sectors, too. It has worked through its Stay Onside Programme with young prisoners, providing them formal football training to provide them a means to prevent further incarceration and develop their professional skills.

The IFA has also been a pioneer in suicide prevention and promoting the importance of mental health via Ahead of the Game in communities across the country. Another focus now is on its ‘Shooting Stars’ programme. Michael realises that the growth of football, not just in NI but across the world, is dependent on the women’s game and the development of young female athletes. They have leadership courses for women to develop future players, supporters, employees and volunteers, building their capacity to take ownership of their own futures.

Eventually, Northern Ireland started scoring more goals and qualified for the European Cup in 2016. If there’s any evidence that sums up the transformation of Northern Ireland Football, it is when Northern Ireland Supporters won the Medal of Paris alongside the Republic of Ireland that summer. There’s perhaps no greater image of transformation come across the island than when the two teams were honoured together, to put it simply, for being great fans and great people.

Michael said that, “Practically everywhere we go, the feedback is the same:  ‘Your fans are a joy!’” Northern Ireland fans are fully aware that they are ambassadors of the team and their success, whether on the pitch or off, is due to the fun, safe and inclusive environment they have created and owned now for two decades.

For Michael Boyd, an enthusiastic amateur footballer turned community builder, who was recently awarded the first ever Diploma in Football Leadership and Management by UEFA, football is only one, very important way to impact communities and continue reconciliation. The use of sport as a medium to peace building is hugely successful around the world. Working with others, Michael shows how that can happen in ‘Our Wee Country’.

AvilaMedia is a social enterprise running community and research projects across Northern Ireland. If you’re interested in being interviewed for the #AtsUsNai project, you can get in contact with AvilaMedia here.