AN AWARD-WINNING Wrexham football coach has spoken about the reporting system of alleged racist incidents.

Delwyn Derrick was recently crowned BBC Wales’ Get Inspired Unsung Hero 2019.

A leading figure in Wrexham’s migrant community, he is best known as the founder and manager of Bellevue FC, a multi-nationality team comprising players from all across the world.

Competing in the North East Wales Football League, players from Portugal, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Sudan, Namibia, Eritrea, Poland, Romania and Albania currently or have made up some of the squad.

And one of the votes for Mr Derrick came from a refugee who plays for the club.

“I don’t feel like a hero at all - for me it’s just the natural thing to help bring together and integrate people into our society,” Mr Derrick said.

“I’ve won the award but it’s the lads around me who have truly won it.”

He received the prestigious accolade at the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year ceremony at the Celtic Manor in Newport.

And Mr Derrick says he wants to use the award to spark a discussion over what he says is an “outdated” procedure of reporting incidents of a racist nature.

He said: “The whole system needs a complete overhaul.

“In England, enough racist incidents are reported to Kick It Out for it to be able to produce data on how many incidents are occurring and where.

“This at the very least allows the authorities to see where the issues are and for clubs to recognise if they have a problem that needs to be dealt with.

“But in Wales, the Kick It Out equivalent, Show Racism The Red Card, is simply not made aware of anywhere near enough incidents.

“And the ones that are - everything is kept internal so it’s impossible for anyone to see where the worst issues are.

“The current system is outdated and not fit for purpose - if one of my players is racially abused and I instruct the team to walk off, we could still face a fine for not completing the match.

“That’s being penalised for taking a stand against discrimination and that simply isn’t right.”

According to the Football Assoication of Wales' (FAW) non-discrimination regulations, referees have the power to stop, suspend or even abandon a match if an incident of a discriminatory nature occurs.

If a match is subsequently abandoned by the referee because of discriminatory conduct, the match may be declared forfeit.

Mr Derrick claims the current system of reporting incidents leads to nothing more than a case of ‘he said, she said’.

“You send in a complaint to the FAW by email, they investigate by approaching the other club to get their side,” he explained.

“Immediately it just becomes one word against another - an argument.”

The FAW says "racism is a societal issue, rather than a football issue", and that it works to create an "inclusive, welcoming and safe environment in football for all people."

Mr Derrick says another issue is that it is up to the referee to supply evidence in allegations of racist abuse.

“But labelling someone a racist is a huge accusation and if they’re not 1000 per cent sure about it they’re not going to speak up about it,” he said.

And what Mr Derrick says is the “plague” of racism and discrimination is not going away any time soon.

“This is why there needs to be a robust way of dealing with the many inevitable incidents there’ll be in football - both at the top and grass roots levels.”