Making Football Everyone's game within Gloucestershire

Football clubs across England will be lacing up to help inspire, educate, and encourage allyship to support LGBT+ inclusion over the coming weeks.

Gloucestershire FA will join The FA, the Premier League, EFL, Barclays FA Women’s Super League, FA Women’s Championship and thousands of National League System and grassroots clubs in support of the Rainbow Laces campaign, which aims to work across communities to Make Sport Everyone’s Game.

This year’s campaign centres around allyship, which means being supportive of equal civil rights, gender equality and LGBT+ social movements, challenging homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. 

Running from 26 November to 13 December, Rainbow Laces will be worn on the pitch when possible, with the campaign also focusing on online support to celebrate and galvanise LGBT+ people and allies across communities.

Wednesday 9 December will be marked as Rainbow Laces Day with everybody encouraged to share their support online.

In November 2018 The FA announced a partnership with Stonewall, which has seen the organisation commit to joining its Diversity Champions programme and working together on developing and delivering bespoke staff training and empowerment programmes for FA employees across Wembley Stadium and St. George’s Park.

In recent years, Gloucestershire FA is proud to have supported the campaign and raising awareness by working local Leagues and professional club, Cheltenham Town Football Club. Our grassroots Clubs, Leagues and Match Officials have received rainbow laces and captain armbands while also showing support by taking part in Focus games.

The combined efforts of grassroots clubs and leagues continues to use football as a vehicle to generate awareness of and help tackle homophobia, transphobia and biphobia abuse. 

While progress has been made, there is still much work to be done to encourage people to be active allies of LGBT+ people and to make the game truly inclusive. Research from Stonewall, the UK’s leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity, says more than two in five [43%] think public sporting events are not a welcoming space for LGBT+ people. Research also shows that COVID-19 is having a negative impact across LGBT+ communities with many experiencing isolation and poor mental health.

Gloucestershire FA Referee and Equality Development Officer, Roger Vaughan said: "The GFA is committed to making the game truly accessible to everyone and that means harnessing the power of football to help further educate and encourage allyship to support LGBT+ communities across our region.

“We are proud to support the Rainbow Laces campaign and each year we are seeing greater awareness and an increasing willingness from people to tackle all forms of discrimination. This is a significant next step to making the game inclusive for all.”

Anybody who wants to learn more about how they can support, or has a story they’d wish to share, is encouraged to get in touch. For further details and to access resources to promote your fixture, head to our dedicated Rainbow Laces page.

Gloucestershire FA Rainbow Laces page