Matt Maher: Sanjay Bhandari leading the way out of Enoch Powell's shadow

“It would be quoted, there wasn’t a week that would go by when you wouldn’t hear it at school,” he says. “It would be ‘go home’ and ‘Enoch was right’. He was an MP in this city, a massive figure in my childhood. Growing up in the 1970s was tough.”

Now the best part of five decades on and after a career in the legal profession which saw him frequently tackle inequality, Bhandari finds himself a central figure in the fight against racism and discrimination in football thanks to his role as chairman of Kick It Out.

Last September he became only the second chair in the campaign organisation’s 27-year history when he replaced the founder Lord Herman Ouseley.

“I was proud to be able to follow him and lucky to stand on the shoulders of giants in that respect,” he says. “It’s a really big challenge but I’m not the kind of person who gets too daunted by any- thing. I just focus on the future and think what is it we need to do? Let’s get cracking.”

At the age 51, Bhandari can reflect on a hugely successful career built from humble beginnings.

He was just 15 when his father died, leaving the family penniless and meaning Bhandari, his mother and two brothers survived on benefits, before his life was transformed forever by a government-assisted grant which allowed him to attend grammar school.

From there he went to study law at Cambridge and then moved to London, where his first 16 years in the profession focused on international fraud, white-collar crime and asset tracing.

“It was essentially going after bad guys’ money. It was exciting work,” Bhandari explains.

The push for greater equality has been a common theme throughout his working life. Bhandari was a partner at law firm EY for 12 years and a leader of their award-winning diversity and inclusion initiatives, while he is also a member of the Parker Committee which reviews ethnic diversity in UK boardrooms.

For the four years before joining the board of Kick It Out, meanwhile, Bhandari was a member of the Premier League’s equality standard independent panel.

“I have never been particularly political and I am not a firebrand,” he says. “But I have always had an intrinsic belief in doing the right thing and standing up for what you believe in.”

One thing Bhandari certainly does believe in is football, and in particular the sport’s ability to be a driving force in tackling racism in society.

A lifelong Manchester United fan, he has witnessed first-hand the many positive changes in the sport since he first attended matches in the 1970s and 80s.

By the same token, Bhandari is eager to confront head-on the new wave of discrimination which has seen a rise in high-profile racist incidents in the past few years and wants Kick It Out to be front and centre of the fight.

His chairmanship began at a difficult period for the charity, which in 2018 was found to have governance failures following concerns raised about safeguarding, bullying and harassment.

Bhandari’s first task has been to lead a strategic review and he has spent the past few months on a ‘listening tour’ – originally intended to last three months, but which will now be extended indefinitely – speaking to both stakeholders and critics about the best ways to make Kick It Out more effective.

“The thing which has really stuck out is people still trust Kick It Out,” says Bhandari. “They respect the brand, if you like, and see a lot of value in the organisation. Maybe in that regard we can act as a bit of a catalyst for the whole of football when it comes to tackling discrimination.

“The sport is often referred to as a family, but it can be quite a dysfunctional family. Maybe part of our role is to galvanise and bring people together.

“When Kick It Out was set up in 1993, the challenge was trying to get those in football to accept there was even a problem.

“Now the world has changed. Every club in the Premier League and EFL club has a diversity and inclusion strategy.

“Maybe our role is no longer to deliver everything on behalf of everyone, but ask how we can be a catalyst for all of those people to be more effective?”

Bhandari believes greater communication is key, particularly when it comes to highlighting Kick It Out’s precise role and the extent of its work, following criticism from some players at what they perceive as a lack of action.

“I understand the frustration some players and other people have expressed, that it feels like we are just T-shirts,” he says. “Actually, there is a lot more to what we do than just T-shirts and campaigning.

“Probably 10 per cent of our work is on responding to incidents and talking about them in the media, but that is what gets most of the attention.

“The other 90 per cent of our work is education, talent programmes and helping clubs to have better strategies and policies around inclusion. That never gets much attention.

“I suppose I could cry about that, or I could take a degree of responsibility and say: ‘OK, maybe we are not communicating that effectively enough’.”

Bhandari, who received racist abuse on social media when his appointment was announced, knows all too well the fight against discrimination is one which will never fully be won.

But he has set out a series of aims he believes can be achieved in the next decade.

They include creating a sport where ‘a black player can play in any stadium and be confident that he will not be abused’ and ‘supporters wearing a hijab, kippah or turban can attend a game without receiving stares or abuse’.

Bhandari would also like a professional player with a same-sex partner not to be ‘news’ and has expressed a desire for aspiring black, Asian and minority ethnic coaches to feel they will get the same opportunities as their white counterparts. In terms of the game’s broader strategy against tackling discrimination, Bhandari believes there should be a focus on turning supporters into activists when it comes to calling out those guilty of abuse.

While he would also like to see a consistent and stringent set of sanctions for those who cross the line, education remains key to enacting long-term change.

“The question you always have to ask is what are we doing to prevent it, detect it and react to it?” he said. “One thing you definitely can’t do is ban your way out of this. It is appropriate on occasions to ban supporters, but we also want that flexibility to be able to educate and train people. Not every offender is extreme and is lost.

“Racism has existed for 300 or 400 years. So what realistically are your chances of getting rid of it from society in any two, three, four or five-year period?

“We can try to make football a hostile environment for racism. We can make it zero tolerance.

“But as soon as there is a rise in tension and racism and discrimination in the rest of society, we are going to feel some of that in football.

“Our challenge is to battle that but there is no quick fix. You have to understand the causes and the systemic things you can do to enact change. There is no magic wand you can wave and racism and discrimination will go away.”