The opportunity

Arsenal FC has a deep relationship to Black British culture. The history of the club’s Black players, and their impact on wider culture, is well-documented. This year, in Dr. Clive Chijioke Nwonka’s book Black Arsenal, the club is explored as a utopia, a symbol of a multicultural city at its best.

Despite this rich history, there’s an untold story beyond the team on the pitch. A story about the undeniable contribution of Black supporters to the culture of Arsenal. This hidden history matters, and our challenge was to uncover and celebrate it.

The project

So this Black History Month, we helped Arsenal FC archive this untold history. By collecting stories from Black supporters, our newest work - Black Arsenal Untold - encourages fans to contribute to this collection of tales at risk of being lost forever, but now preserved to tape.

Black Arsenal Untold is deliberately a project, not a campaign, sharing and sourcing untold stories of the impact Black supporters have made on the culture of Arsenal – a culture all supporters are part of. An ongoing initiative built from a shared purpose and collaboration.

The films

To launch the project, we developed three intimate films featuring Reggie Yates, Anita Asante, and Ezra Collective’s Femi Koleoso sitting down with real supporters. Together these multigenerational stories - spanning entrepreneurship, the club’s creative legacy, and football culture from the 1990s to today - are emblematic of intrinsic parts of the Black experience.

At their core, the films are a springboard - a platform encouraging supporters to share their own stories, giving voice to the community's contribution to the wider Arsenal identity. Now live across Arsenal’s channels, comments from supporters sharing their own stories are a window into the alchemy that makes this team so special, and the richness of these previously untold histories.

The future

We hope this initiative makes an already uniquely close connection between Arsenal and their supporters even closer - it’s great to see the project sparking memories, stories and characters in club history we might never otherwise have known.

Fandom is one of the most powerful unifiers we have, and in partnership with the Arsenal team, we’re building a mythology for the club where everyone sees themselves reflected back. We’re hoping to gather more and more submissions, and eventually, to preserve them in the Arsenal museum alongside the history of the team on the pitch.

To share your story, email [email protected].