EXCLUSIVE: Iffy Onuora, head of equality, diversity and inclusion for the Premier League, discusses his lifelong passion for Everton
Iffy Onuora, head of equality, diversity and inclusion for the Premier League, speaks at the launch of an exhibition celebrating Everton's first 11 black players, at Hill Dickinson Stadium
Iffy Onuora, head of equality, diversity and inclusion for the Premier League, speaks at the launch of an exhibition celebrating Everton's first 11 black players, at Hill Dickinson Stadium
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Lifelong Blue Iffy Onuora has hailed the club that Everton have become having grown up watching his heroes at Goodison Park at a time when he was one of only a few black faces on the terraces and there were no black players turning out for the team he loved.
The 59-year-old, who is head of equality, diversity and inclusion for the Premier League – the first person to hold the post – was a guest speaker at Hill Dickinson Stadium last week at the launch of an exhibition that sees Everton’s first 11 black players celebrated with a display throughout Black History Month.
Onuora was a much-travelled striker plying his trade in the lower divisions of English football. Starting his senior career at Huddersfield Town, he also turned out for Mansfield Town, Gillingham, Swindon Town, Sheffield United, Wycombe Wanderers, Grimsby Town and Tranmere Rovers.
Although he was born in Glasgow, he moved to Merseyside as a child and attended Sacred Heart Catholic College in Crosby, the same school as former Everton striker Victor Anichebe.
And Onuora told the ECHO: “My first Everton heroes were the likes of big Bob Latchford and Duncan McKenzie, all those guys. When I was still a kid, there was the 1980s team when we had the glory years under Howard (Kendall) with the likes of Peter Reid, Sharpy and Andy Gray.
Bob Latchford scores again against Manchester United
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“I grew up watching from the terraces at Goodison Park when we were able to sneak in and catch a game. I was a little bit defiant, I was like: ‘I’m going to watch the team, no matter what’, but it was an uncomfortable time.
“I had a decent career, but I wasn’t quite good enough to play for the Blues which was always my dream. It still stays in your heart, half the family are all Blue and the other half, we don’t talk about.
“We’ve had some lean times but in a typical Everton counterculture way, we’ve been doing well this season.”
Although Onuora retains fond memories of watching Blues matches at Goodison Park as a youngster – he never got the chance to play there as an opposition player – he is a big fan of Hill Dickinson Stadium and had already been there before his latest visit.
He said: “I had so many great memories of Goodison from the 1980s, watching from the Gwladys Street. I’d hate the idea that it was bulldozed, so for me, it’s great that it’s still being used by Everton Women.
“Hill Dickinson Stadium, it’s a magnificent though isn’t it? We had to move and go on to the next level.
“I also work on weekends as a match delegate, which in old money is a referees’ assessor, and because I’m based in Manchester, I tend to do the North West games. I asked for the first game at Hill Dickinson Stadium last season, I said: ‘Please put me on that one’, and have done a couple of matches since, but none yet so far this season.”
Onuora details how conversations with Manchester City pioneer Alex Williams, who later received an MBE for services to young people, opened his eyes to the kind of abuse that occurred at Goodison Park, even for somebody assisting Everton’s most decorated player.
He said: “You had to pick and choose your heroes. As well as Everton as a team, I had individual idols such as Cyrille Regis and I had the pleasure of meeting him later in life and Alex Williams, the former Manchester City player who had a short spell at Everton as goalkeeper coach.
“I got to meet Alex through his work at the foundation at Manchester City before he retired and he told me about going in and working with Neville (Southall). Big Nev was a massive champion and supporter of him but unfortunately some members of the crowd would shout racist abuse towards Alex when he was warming up and working with Neville, who would defend him.
“There were others among the Everton family who would always champion the cause, including Peter Reid, who spoke on the night, and Pat Nevin, through to the likes of Seamus Coleman in more recent years. Gradually, there were enough important people at the club to make a difference.”
Iffy Onuora with former Everton player Gareth Farrelly at Hill Dickinson Stadium
Iffy Onuora with former Everton player Gareth Farrelly at Hill Dickinson Stadium
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One of Onuora’s biggest inspirations though was someone celebrated at Everton’s exhibition, their first black captain, the late Kevin Campbell. He said: “It was nice for club to ask me to speak at the launch of the Everton’s first 11 black players exhibition because the likes of Kevin Campbell, God rest his soul, are no longer with us. It was a real honour to be part of that.
“For me, ‘Super Kev’, Kevin Campbell was a big turning point with the impact that he had both on and off the pitch as club captain. He blazed a trail for the players that came afterwards.
“I met him a few times. He had a lovely presence about him, and he was a real gentleman as well.
“There was a real warmth about him, I don’t think anyone ever said a bad word about Kevin, which is really rare in football. I’m not sure he asked for that moment, but talk about meeting it at the time when people like me who have always held Everton in great esteem but was a little bit nervous about some aspects of being a fan, needed to see people like him at the club and doing so well and being revered by the fanbase, you can’t overstate how important he was.
27 Sep 1999: Kevin Campbell of Everton scores the 4th minute winner during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool and Everton played at Anfiled, Liverpool, England. The Merseyside derby finished in a 1-0 win for visitors Everton. \ Mandatory Credit: Ben Radford /Allsport
Kevin Campbell fires in his famous Merseyside derby winner for Everton at Anfield(Image: Ben Radford /Allsport)
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“You don’t gloss over the darker times, but you recognise what the likes of those who I have mentioned have brought to the club and made it what it is now.
“I think by the time Daniel Amokachi signed for Everton (in 1994) there was a real clamour at that point. We’d all seen the impact that John Barnes had made at Liverpool and by that point they had also had the likes of Michael Thomas and a good friend of mine, Mark Walters (who Everton had tried to sign).
“They had all made their mark at Anfield while Everton remained, almost stubbornly, all white. Daniel had come off the back of the World Cup and was well regarded but he was almost on a hiding to nothing.
“As a black player but non-British, you weren’t sure how those nuances would play out. But I think he did well enough.
“No slight on Daniel and I don’t want to take away anything from him, but I think what Kevin Campbell did as a black British man, added to that impact and brought it home. He became the symbol for black struggle in the city among those in the second and third generations in the UK.”
While the Premier League now attracts some of the best footballers from across the world and its clubs all field multi-racial, multi-ethnic squads, Onuora remains wary of racism rearing its ugly head in society again and using football as a platform.
He said: “Ged Grebby, the chief executive of Show Racism the Red Card, is a son of the North East and he started it because of the abuse he witnessed attending Newcastle United matches at St James’ Park. He struck up a great friendship with Newcastle keeper Shaka Hislop and saw that racism was prevalent at the time, but unfortunately, it’s creeping back in a bit now.
“It’s a sign of the times. We probably haven’t recovered since the crash in 2008 and these things always seem to rear their head during economic downturns when people are feeling financially disaffected, they reach for someone to blame, and certain people will stoke that as well.
Iffy Onuora celebrates scoring for Gillingham against Nottingham Forest on November 12, 2000
Iffy Onuora celebrates scoring for Gillingham against Nottingham Forest on November 12, 2000(Image: Mike Hewitt/ALLSPORT)
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“We also have social media now. When we just had television, they probably wouldn’t get the airtime.
“So, we are in tough times and that’s when it’s beholding of people to remind us of where we have been before and what this has led to in the past by telling the stories of individuals who have been and gone but have elevated society through football. I think that football is a great vehicle to do this and, in some ways, it has always led the way, so it’s an immense privilege for me to still be involved in the game that I love and trying to make a difference.”
In terms of his own role, Onuora added: “Sometimes you get put in a position. If you’d have asked me 10 years ago just after I’d finished playing, I’d have probably said that I wanted to stay in football as a coach.
“But all that has happened since with Covid, George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, I’ve found myself in this position. I guess I’ve always had a bit of an activist mentality growing up as a kid on Merseyside.
“That’s what Merseyside is like that, very similar to Glasgow. It’s everything: Religion, politics, football.
“You’re either one or the other but you’re never in between as a Liverpudlian. Being across conversations and trying to influence them in the right way is a big responsibility and something you step into.”