A FORMER Cheltenham College pupil has started a campaign to kick racism out of Spanish football.

Dan Tennant-Ralphs, a 22-year-old Cardiff University graduate who grew up in Montpellier, devised the campaign when studying for a degree in Spanish and Italian.

It was while watching England's black players being taunted during a friendly match with Spain back in 2004 that Tennant-Ralphs was spurred into action.

"I was watching the England versus Spain game with some of my Spanish friends and heard the chants directed at Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips," said Tennant-Ralphs.

"I told them about the campaigns we have over here that have successfully tackled racism and they said that there was a real gap over in Spain for that kind of thing.

"As two of my great passions in life are Spanish and football I thought I would combine the two.

"So I came up with the slogan and while working over in Spain during the summer I managed to meet with some of the players who were happy to support the cause."

He used his fluent Spanish speaking skills to coin the phrase 'Un juego para todos, sin racismo' translated as 'One game for all, without racism' and got it emblazoned on banners at T-shirts.

His next task was to track down players and get them to support it.

"I was working in Galicia in the north of Spain and the Spanish national team were playing a World Cup qualifier in Coruna," said Tennant-Ralphs.

"I was lucky to get into the hotel and get people like Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas and Xabi Alonso to pose with the banner."

He also contacted a number of La Liga clubs in order to promote the cause and has linked up with Sevilla, receiving support from manager Manolo Jimenez, striker Freddie Kanoute and Ivory Coast midfielder Didier Zokora.

"I spoke with Didier who knows all about the campaign in England having played for Spurs. He also has experience playing in the French and Belgian leagues.

"I've got his phone number and I am hoping to set up an interview with him to promotes the cause."

Tennant-Ralphs hopes the extra publicity he is gaining will lead to the Spanish Football Association adopting a campaign similar to the English FA's 'Kick It Out' initiative to combat racism.

"The dream is to have a week of action where players wear T-shirts with my slogan on it and hold the cards up before games," he said.

"I've already had the campaign featured in Marca, the main sports daily paper. Hopefully things will progress from there."

* One game for all, without racism