Irish igaming operator Paddy Power is backing the Stonewall sexual equality charity, with a campaign that asks professional UK footballers to show their support for gay players by wearing rainbow colored boot laces when they play. The Paddy Power / Stonewall campaign has given a pair of rainbow colored boot laces to every professional footballer playing in the 134 UK professionally associated leagues.
UK Footballers have been asked to wear them on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 September as part of the ‘Right Behind Gay Footballers’ campaign. The campaign aims to change attitudes towards homosexuality and will try to make football a more gay friendly sport. Currently there are no homosexual footballers playing in the UK professional leagues. Football only has had a handful of athletes that have come out as gay during their active playing careers. Justin Fashanu, the UK’s first openly gay footballer, tragically committed suicide in May1998.
Controversial QPR midfielder Joey Barton has already shown his support for the UK Gay Rights campaign. He wore the laces in a man-of-the-match performance against Birmingham on Saturday, September 15.
Paddy Power and Stonewall have launched a UK wide campaign to highlight awareness of this subject matter. The igaming operator renowned for its audacious and reactive marketing will also promote the charity campaign through its social media channels, hosting branding campaigns on Facebook and asking the UK public to back the Right Behind Gay Footballers campaign during the build-up to the weekend fixtures using the #RBGF hashtag.
A Paddy Power spokesman said: “We love football but it needs a kick up the arse. In most other areas of life people can be open about their sexuality and it’s time for football to take a stand and show players it doesn’t matter what team they play for.”
Paddy Power Right Behind Gay Footballers campaign
