It was a special evening with lots of inspirational speeches on stage from the awardees such as Alex Scott, Chris Hughton, Darren Moore, Eartha Pond and Ben Robinson. Keith Alexander award winner, Lianne Sanderson, who unfortunately couldn’t be there, sent a powerful message and we heard from her dad on the night on what it meant to the whole family for her to receive recognition of her hard work and resilience. It was a night which also celebrated young people, as the 2018 Ugo Ehiogu’s Ones To Watch was announced.
It was a first for five current players who received the inaugural ‘Cyrille Regis – Players off the Pitch’ Award, named after the late great footballing pioneer. His family presented winner Eartha Pond on the stage, while the other winners included; Mo Salah, Liam Rosenior, Christian Atsu and Yannick Bolasie.
Shola Ama was the first ever musical act to perform at the Football Black List, and hosts DJ Spoony and Jessica Creighton ensured the audience was engaged and entertained throughout the proceedings.
All the images from the night can be found by clicking on this image.
Britain’s first football club owner and chairman of African or Caribbean descent, Ben Robinson was honoured in the ‘Administration’ category alongside his daughter, Burton’s Commercial Director, Fleur Robinson. While multiple FBL awardee, Lord Herman Ouseley, was again honoured for driving Kick It Out for 25 years.
On the 100th anniversary of his death, Walter Tull was celebrated and his great-nephew Ed Finlayson was on present on stage to hand over a special award to Walter’s biographer and advocate; Phil Vasili.
It was an evening where we were honouring two supporters of the Football Black List whom are sadly no longer with us Cyrille Regis, whose name now adorns the Players award category and Ugo Ehiogu, who has a special category for talented, young people under the age of 30 in his name. We were privileged to have Cyrille’s wife Julia, his daughter Michelle and his sister, Denise at the celebration. Ugo’s wife, Gemma, his sister, Ola and brother, Alosie were also in attendance and helped to give out the awards on stage. It was a fitting tribute to two, great men.
We would like to thank the Premier League for their ongoing support and Prostate Cancer for being the Football Black List’s first ever charity partner.
