Paddy Power’s campaign with activists Stonewall to kick homophobia out of football is gathering momentum, with a number of professional footballers and clubs pledging to wear rainbow laces in support in the weekend’s fixtures.
The laces were delivered to all 92 of the professional teams in England and the 42 in Scotland on Monday, with the bookie also running a billboard campaign across the UK. Clubs including Everton, Charlton and Leyton Orient have publicly pledged support, as well as current players Joey Barton (QPR), David Stockdale (Fulham) and Peter Odemwingie (Cardiff), and ex players Gary Lineker, Stan Collymore and Matt Le Tissier.
The Irish bookie launched the campaign with Stonewall on Monday to combat the homophobia in football that they say makes gay footballers “too worried about the impact on their careers and personal lives to come out”, reflected by the fact there are no openly gay footballers. According to Paddy Power, there are 5,000 players at 134 clubs across England, Scotland and Wales, meaning that the odds on there being no gay person in this sample are a “quadragintillion” to one, or the equivalent of a punter accurately predicting the exact score in 150 consecutive football matches.
The lack of consultation with the Premier League over the campaign however means Everton are likely to be in a minority of English Premier League clubs wearing the laces this weekend, with Manchester United, Spurs and Norwich having already stated they will not be taking part, the EPL informing the BBC that “naivety has played a part in potentially muting an important message.”
The campaign’s tagline of Right Behind Gay Footballers has also come under fire from other activist groups for using language which they argue reinforces the stereotypes and caricatures which, in the long run, supports the continued existence of homophobic attitudes.
The bookie has however remained undeterred, emphasising that it consulted fully with Stonewall ahead of selecting this tagline, offering the following response to the EPL on its blog today: “It’s only a pair of laces. Go ahead and be sulky boots, Premier League.”
Stonewall’s media manager Richard Lane accepted the message was “tongue in cheek”, but said this meant it was going to engage people via Paddy’s “massive reach” as reflected by the attention the campaign was receiving across the media and on social media channels such as Twitter. “It’s starting debates and that can only be a good thing”, Lane told the BBC.
Article written by Peter Holmes
