Birmingham City fans march 'to speak against racism'

Fans gathered in Birmingham's Victoria Square

A group of fans marched through a city centre "to speak against racism as football supporters".

Birmingham City supporters met at the club's St Andrew's ground before walking to Victoria Square in the city centre where speeches took place.

Wally Wilkins, from Birmingham, said: "It's well know that Birmingham City is a multi-cultural club with a big multi-cultural fan base.

"We've turned up to speak against racism as football supporters."

A BBC reporter at the scene estimated about 200 people took part.

Fans walked from the club's ground to Victoria Square

One fan said: "It doesn't matter if you're black or white, we all respect each other"

Mr Wilkins added: "After events that have been happening in the past few weeks and past couple of years with certain football alliances and involvement in the Far Right, we wanted to show them that we're not going to let racism take over again.

"The message is we stood up to racism in the late 70s and early 80s and we thought we had eradicated it but it seems to be slowly creeping back so we're just letting them know we're eradicating it again, peacefully."

Another fan added: "It doesn't matter if you're black or white, we all respect each other."