Woman in the eye of the culture storm

She probably has the hardest job in the game, but Leeds' community worker is looking for positives amid the negativity

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After the week that Leeds have endured, you might expect to find their head of community affairs dressed in full metal jacket and steel helmet. That is not quite the style of the dark-haired 34-year-old who occupies the front line in Leeds United's enduring battle for image rights. If, as David O'Leary claims, the club needs the capture of Osama Bin Laden to remove it from the front pages, then Emma Stanford has gained a vague understanding of what it must be like to handle community relations for the Taliban.

By her own admission, this has not been one of her most rewarding weeks. But, in her more reflective moments, she recalls her first visit to Elland Road 21 years before when she and her father were forced to cower behind a wall to avoid a hail of bricks hurled by visiting Chelsea fans. Happy days. And not a bad memory on which to hang a sense of perspective at the end of a week in which Leeds have been subject to a public stoning.

"It's been a hard week," she agrees. "It's very frustrating when there is so much good work going on in the community. Relationships have been tested, but I take heart from the fact that I have had no telephone calls, no letters saying anything negative about what we're doing. I have actually had a lot of support from the sponsors and people who are working with us."

Yesterday, there was standing room only on the moral high ground above Elland Road, while somewhere down below two teams tried to justify their own lofty positions in the Premier League. The inclusion of Lee Bowyer prompted a predictable response from both sets of fans. Bowyer, declared innocent by the courts of assaulting an Asian student but pilloried in the public stocks, received his second standing ovation of the week from his own fans, while the Newcastle end sustained a prolonged chorus of "Lee-ee Bowyer, we want to know-wo-wo, why you're not in jail". All very merry, if you happen not to have watched the anguish of Sarfraz Najeib's father last week as he searched for a more coherent form of justice for his son.

O'Leary had urged Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate to begin their defence on the pitch. So sod's law dictated that it had to be Bowyer who equalised Craig Bellamy's opening goal with a shot through the legs of Shay Given. Leeds celebrated; football quaked.

Up in the stand, shorn of her usual sponsor's escort on match day, Emma Stanford, a lifetime Leeds fan, would have known as well as anyone how easily the waif-like figure at the eye of the storm will divide the emotions of a multi-cultural city, let alone a media-led nation. Stanford, the head of the biggest community football team in the country, sees the sides of footballers not on show to the general public. Thirty full-time staff are dedicated to the community programme, 25 part-time and more than 100 volunteer mentors.

"As far as I know, my post doesn't exist at any other club in the country," she says. "I've been here for almost four years now when the new owners of Leeds made a conscious decision to commit themselves to a proper community programme. At the time, the club's reputation in the community wasn't brilliant, but the previous owners had not accepted it as one of the responsibilities of the club. That has changed dramatically."

So, last Sunday, Stanford watched as some porcelain plates, individually painted by some of the players, fetched £20,000 at a charity auction for the Prince's Trust. As Leeds had just conceded two goals and two points to struggling Leicester City, Stanford had considered cancelling the whole event. But with Rio Ferdinand as the guest auctioneer and bidding his own artistic impression up to £3,300, higher than Kylie Minogue's effort, the corporate guests joined in the Christmas spirit. Neither Bowyer nor Woodgate submitted an entry. So who was Leeds' Rolf Harris? "Alan Smith, actually. He did a brilliant design on a golfing theme and it was very neatly done. But then Alan continues to surprise me. He's such a talented lad." Smith, hardly the ideal role model on the field, won the last community player of the year award hands down.

"One of the positive aspects of the Bowyer affair, call it what you will, is that some of the media have discovered what we are trying to do here," she adds. "The flip side, the one that makes me angry, is that it has taken all this bad publicity to generate any interest." What had particularly incensed Stanford last week was the local paper's picture of Lee Bowyer and a child during one of the squad's traditional Christmas visits to the children's ward of the local hospital. "There were six pages on the negative side and even the caption to the picture of Lee was pretty cynical, suggesting it was just a publicity stunt. You can't win."

Central to much of the educational and community work which is being carried out by the department is the anti-racism campaign. Stanford was struck two years ago by the attitude of a group of young Asians who had been given free tickets to a game at Elland Road. "They came back to us saying they were a bit nervous about coming along. We reassured them, they came to the game and had a great day. There are problems with racism throughout society and some of that comes out in football. But we are trying to deal with it." Just as, behind closed doors, Leeds United are encouraging local kids to improve their literacy and numeracy levels at the club's purpose-built education centre.

"There has been a shadow cast over all the good work we have done," the Leeds chairman, Peter Ridsdale, wrote in his programme notes for yesterday's match. "Substantial damage has been done to the club's reputation."

Both Bowyer and Woodgate are committed to an increased involvement in the club's community programme. Stanford once had the task of selling dance to Leeds' minority groups. Football, she says, excites rather greater passion. No one at Elland Road yesterday will need to be reminded of that particular truth.