Event Report: 2026 CMSport Forum- Racism doesn’t belong in our game
More than 100 people from across Victoria’s sport and recreation sector came together at the 2026 CMSport Forum: Racism Doesn’t Belong in Our Game, to examine how sport in Victoria can better prevent and respond to racism.
Held at The Home of the Matildas on 27 August and hosted by Football Victoria, the Forum brought together sporting organisations, community leaders, athletes, researchers and practitioners for a day of panels, workshops, facilitated learning and an Innovation Showcase.
The program featured 18 speakers and was designed to build the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to tackle racism in sport. The Forum followed the launch of the Racism Doesn’t Belong in Our Game campaign by CMSport and CMY as part of the Anti-Racism In Sport Pledge Group in June.
The Forum was grounded in cross-cultural knowledge and wisdom throughout the day. Attendees were warmly welcomed in song by Forum MC TAMM Kingi-Falakoa, Team Leader, Le Mana Pasifika, Centre for Multicultural Youth, with song and spoken word in the Niue language. TAMM set the tone of the day, making space for reflection and discomfort as attendees explored racism in sport, whilst maintaining an environment of respect and safety. CMY Practice Leader and social worker Sameera Fieldgrass was also introduced to the group to provide wellbeing support.
Across the day, five themes emerged.
1. Racism is not new, but new approaches are needed to tackle it
“We need to have real conversations with real people in real communities.”
Patrick Johnson OLY, Culture and Safety Advisor, Sport Integrity Australia
The Forum began by recognising that racism in Australian sport is not a new problem. In her Welcome to Country, Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Annette Xiberras shared stories of First Nations activism in Australia and her own family’s experience in sport. She reflected on the importance of creating a different experience for future generations.
“Today is about making sure the children don’t have to go through what we had to go through. It’s about making them a better place and working together.”
Drawing on his experiences as an elite athlete, sports administrator and parent, Patrick Johnson OLY, Culture and Safety Advisor, Sport Integrity Australia spoke about the need to create environments where people feel safe enough to have difficult conversations about racism. He also challenged sports that assume racism is not an issue because they do not see it occurring.
“You have to have those hard conversations.”
The first panel explored what anti-racism leadership can look like in practice. Dan Birrell, CEO, Football Victoria, spoke about the importance of embedding cultural understanding into the infrastructure of sport, rather than embracing culture selectively when it is convenient.
“We can’t just embrace the culture when it suits us.”
Rob Hyatt, Manager of Cultural Experiences, Koorie Heritage Trust, reflected on how sport has historically responded to racism after an incident, rather than investing in prevention.
“We only talked about racism once it had happened.”
The message was clear: recognising that racism is longstanding does not mean accepting the way things have always been done. It means finding better ways to prevent it, respond to it and create sporting environments where people do not have to change who they are to belong.
2. We all have a role to play
“It’s not enough to be a passive bystander, we need to be an outstander.”
Aunty Linda Bamblett, CEO, VACSAL
Aunty Linda Bamblett, CEO, VACSAL, challenged participants to move beyond passive support.
“Addressing racism is all of our responsibility,” she said, emphasising the ethical and legal responsibilities of sporting organisations and individuals to act. That responsibility was echoed throughout the Forum.
Sharin Milner, Founder, Split The Profit and Phoenix Basketball Club, spoke about the ways people can feel pressure to minimise or hide parts of themselves in sporting environments, including their cultural identities. She encouraged participants to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, particularly when confronting the casual racism that can become normalised in everyday sporting spaces. The point was not that discomfort should be avoided. It was that discomfort should not become a reason to stay silent or stop doing the work.
Patrick Johnson reinforced this message in his closing remarks. He encouraged participants to consider the small moments in which racism can be challenged, whether that is a comment, a joke or a decision about who gets included.
“Every single person in the room is a leader and has a chance to create this change. You have to be the reason someone feels safe, or belongs. Don’t leave it to someone else.”
3. Progress over perfection, and sharing what works
“Don’t let the scale of the work scare you off the work that needs to be done. Start small. Do the little bits that you can because progress is progress.”
Shaun McEachin, GM, Collingwood Basketball Association
The scale and complexity of tackling racism can be daunting, particularly for community clubs operating with limited time, resources and volunteer capacity. But participants repeatedly returned to the idea that progress does not require having every answer before taking action.
Shaun McEachin encouraged organisations to start with the things they can change, rather than becoming overwhelmed by the size of the broader challenge.
That idea was reflected in the practical examples shared throughout the day. Participants heard about approaches being developed across different parts of the sporting system, from organisational self-assessment and resource hubs to research into racism in children’s sport and new guidance for community clubs.
The Innovation Showcase provided a practical example of this approach, bringing together three projects focused on tackling racism in sport, including:
- May Ng and Shelley White from VicHealth, presented on the Set The Standard campaign and the Know The Real Score tool.
- Dr Carleigh Yeomans from Swinburne University, presented Hardball on Hate
- Lauren Matthews from Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, presented the Commission’s Guidelines for Community Sport, focused on helping sporting organisations identify and respond to racism.
4. Capability matters, but accountability is crucial
“You need the policy, but it needs to be IRL.”
Forum participant
Education and capability building featured strongly throughout the Forum, but speakers and attendees also challenged the idea that education alone is enough. The message was particularly evident in the workshop discussions, where participants considered the difference between having an anti-racism policy and creating a club environment where people actually experience its principles.
As one attendee observed, policies can exist “on paper” but mean little if they do not translate into how people feel when they walk through the doors of a club. The Innovation Showcase reinforced this point. Research informing the Hardball on Hate tool found that policies can be difficult for volunteers to navigate in the moments when discrimination occurs, while people experiencing racism can be left without support and lose faith in the process. The project explores ways to make policies easier and more accessible for people on the ground.
Panellists also explored the role of leadership in creating accountability. Shaun McEachin argued that accountability needs to come from leadership, while also emphasising the importance of consultation with community.
There was also recognition that anti-racism language needs to be accessible to different audiences. As Shaun observed, talking to an Under 12s coach about concepts such as intersectionality is unlikely to be effective if the language does not connect with their everyday experience. Building capability therefore means giving people educations, practical tools, clear expectations and the support to act when racism occurs.
5. Collaboration makes the work stronger
“Creating a sporting system free of racism and where everyone can belong is something none of us can – or should – do alone.”
Carmel Guerra OAM, CEO, Centre for Multicultural Youth
Collaboration was a consistent thread throughout the Forum. Carmel Guerra OAM, CEO, Centre for Multicultural Youth, spoke about the multi-sport and partnership approach behind ‘Racism Doesn’t Belong in Our Game’ and the importance of different parts of the sporting system working together.
She encouraged organisations to make connections with others facing similar challenges, rather than trying to develop every solution independently. As she put it, “No organisation has the perfect solutions, but we can create them together.”
That was reflected in the range of people in the room and in the different perspectives brought into the program. Sophie Byrnes, DEI Manager, Football Victoria, described the value of bringing people together around a shared issue.
“Collective effervescence is important, having everyone in the same room, wanting the same thing, doing everything we can.”
The Forum also highlighted that collaboration does not necessarily mean every organisation having the same approach. It can mean sharing what is working, learning from what has not worked, and connecting organisations facing similar challenges.
That principle underpinned the Forum itself: bringing together lived experience, cultural knowledge, research, practical expertise and different perspectives from across sport to examine and tackle a problem that no single organisation can solve on its own.
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