To mark a year on since of the tragic murder of George Floyd on 25 May 2020, BT Sport has released a powerful new film called ‘Time For Change’ which features big-name stars from the world of sport reflecting on the Black Lives Matter movement and its impact on sport and society.

The video is nine minutes and 29 seconds long, the exact amount of time George’s Floyd’s murderer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck, and features Premier League players Jordan Henderson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Raheem Sterling, as well as BT Sport pundits, Rio Ferdinand, Eni Aluko, and Ugo Moyne who talks openly about his own experiences of racism from a very young age and the scars it’s left on himself and his family. Musician @KayYoungMusic provides the inspiring words and quotes taken from the film can be found below.

Ugo Moyne
“It’s not just a black people problem, we need everyone to be able to extinguish this. I’m calling on white people, I’m calling people who don’t look like me, people who haven’t been racially abused; a) to understand what it is, b) to understand how it might affect someone else, and then c) to just be bold enough to stand up and speak out… George Floyd’s murder wasn’t just a moment in time, it started a movement and I want that movement to continue.”

Jordan Henderson
“I think the biggest thing for me is, well it’s wrong so I feel a responsibility to be able to speak and stand up for what is right and wrong. And sometimes I think ‘yeah I’m white so I may not know exactly how it feels’ but at the same time I feel as though the more white people that speak about it and speak about racism can only be a positive thing. You don’t necessarily have to be racist yourself but if you’ve seen somebody else being racist then are you going to let that happen or are you going to stand up and say something?”

Trent Alexander-Arnold
“I think in terms of football, we’re doing a lot but it needs to be consistent, it can’t be in a month’s time that’s all forgotten and yeah it was good while it lasted – it needs to carry on. And be interested about the situation, it’s all around the world. If you don’t know about it, you’re a bit confused, you don’t really know what’s going on – go and ask people, go and find out. Once you do that, you’ll realise what’s going on is not right.”

Eni Aluko
“We’ve seen footballers who are not black come out and talk about race as passionately as if they were black and that always really makes me emotional because we have to be able to empathise and understand and put ourselves in the shoes of other people. We can for the next generation put them in a position where they see people for who they are rather than they have negative stereotypes attached to different races and backgrounds.”

Rio Ferdinand
“There have been so many people who say ‘it’s better now than it was before’, ‘it’s not as bad as it used to be’ – that’s not good enough. Are you getting stopped by police on a daily basis? Are you not being allowed into certain shops on a daily basis? Are you crossing the road because of the colour of your skin? All those things are because of the colour of someone’s skin. It leads me down the road to ask you the question; would you swap places with someone who was black? In today’s society, would you?”

Raheem Sterling
“This is things that have been happening in our country for the last god knows how long. The only disease right now is the racism that we’re fighting, I think this is the most important thing at this moment in time because this is something that’s been happening for years and years and just protesting alone is not going to make a change in this country. We know we have to keep talking, keep fighting and hopefully we do see change.”

Courtesy of BT Sport via Pitch