Weekend Fixtures & News – 21st Sept 2013

Right behing gay footballers

There are over 5,000 professional footballers across England, Scotland and Wales but none of them are openly gay – it is widely recognised that gay footballers are too worried about the impact on their careers and personal lives to ‘come out’ rather than there being no gay footballers, a scenario that has odds of over a quadragintillion to one! Paddy Power and Stonewall have created rainbow coloured football boot laces and distributed them to every footballer across all 134 professional clubs in the UK. Each of these players are being asked to wear the special laces in their club fixtures on September 21st and 22nd to show they support gay footballers.

The simple message of “Right Behind Gay Footballers” is designed to kick start a fundamental change in attitude – it’s not about forcing anyone to come out. Monday 16th September will see the start of a week’s worth of activity to shine the spotlight on homophobia in football. A series of media partnerships will see daily advertising and editorial support for the campaign across traditional media, billboard sites, and through social media with the aim of getting support from footballers, celebrities, fans, and the public.

With an ‘in’ to Paddy Power we’ve managed to get hold of x10 pairs of laces – if anyone from the club would like to don them this weekend in line with pros across the UK then tweet @alexandraparkfc and use the hashtag #RBGF to show your support for the cause.

Weekend Fixtures

More:
News