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Paddy Power in association with leading gay rights charity Stonewall,
today sets out to tackle homophobia in football by distributing rainbow-coloured football boot laces to every professional player in the UK.
There are more than 5,000 professional footballers across England, Scotland and Wales but none of them is openly gay.
It’s 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.
This scenario has odds of over a quadragintillion to one. And, no, we’re not taking bets on the subject.
German goalkeeping legend Oliver Kahn, who played 86 times for his country, recently admitted the issue of homosexuality was still a taboo subject for footballers and fans.
He said homosexuality was no longer a “big deal” in society but said it would be “naive” to think that it was the same in football.
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 is being asked to wear the special laces in their club
fixtures on September 21 & 22 to show they support gay footballers. The simple message of ‘Right Behind Gay Footballers‘ is designed to kickstart a fundamental change in attitude.
It’s not about forcing anyone to come out.
We love football and this issue needs a bold approach.
Monday, September 16, sees the start of a week’s worth of activity from Paddy Power
and our partners to shine the spotlight on homophobia in football.
Players can simply support the campaign by wearing the rainbow coloured laces in their weekend fixtures and using their extraordinary influence to set a benchmark in world sport.
QPR midfielder Joey Barton has already shown his support he wore the laces in a man-of-the-match performance against Birmingham on Saturday, September 15.
