Rainbow laces

Refereeing two football games this weekend.
These are my boots adorned with Rainbow laces.
Rainbow Laces campaign to kick homophobia out of football returns

Rainbow Laces campaign asks players to lace up for weekend of 13/14 September

Premier League, GFSN, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Arsenal and Man City back the campaign

Arsenal stars including Walcott and Giroud film advert for TV and cinema

Fans urged to tweet support using #RainbowLaces

Stonewall, joining forces with the Gay Football Supporters Network (GFSN) and Paddy Power, has sent rainbow laces to every professional club and footballer in Britain to show support for gay players and fans.

The campaign has official backing from the Premier League and high-profile support from Thomas Hitzlsperger, FA Cup winners Arsenal and champions Man City and aims to tackle one of the most persistent challenges in sport: homophobia in football.

Building on the success of last year’s inaugural campaign in which hundreds of pros laced up including Leighton Baines, Olivier Giroud and Joey Barton, alongside widespread support from Ed Miliband, the Department of Culture, Media & Sport, Stephen Fry and Gary Lineker, players and fans are being urged to again show their support over the weekend of 13/14 September.

Arsenal legends Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Olivier Giroud, Santi Cazorla and club captain Mikel Arteta will kick-off the campaign with a high-profile TV ad - ‘The Changing Room’ - designed to raise awareness of the issues around homophobia in football and lead the charge in changing the beautiful game.

Among the 5,000 professional footballers in the UK, not one of them is openly gay – a scenario with odds of over a quadragintillion to one. Stonewall’s own research shows that seven in ten football fans have heard or witnessed homophobia on the terraces and more than 40 per cent believe football to be an anti-gay sport.

Rainbow coloured boot laces have been dispatched to every single professional player in the UK, including youth and women’s teams, alongside deliveries to all 650 MPs and leading political figures. Fans and grass-root players will be asked to tweet their support using the official hashtag: #RainbowLaces

Ruth Hunt, Chief Executive of Stonewall, said: ‘We know that homophobia, biphobia and transphobia are still rife in football. That needs to change. Last year’s Rainbow Laces campaign was a great start but there’s still a long way to go both on and off the pitch. The clubs and players supporting the campaign and lacing up this weekend are taking a powerful stand against homophobia in our national game. Our work in sport will continue all year round, but for this week we need as many people as possible to show their support and get involved.’