FootballvHomophobia gears up for 'month of action' as Man Utd battle for award
Campaign group FootballvHomophobia have issued a rallying cry as they prepare to launch their 15th Month of Action.
The group works to stamp out homophobic abuse from the beautiful game, though campaign lead Lou Englefield has admitted she has seen a lurch back into "divisive times". Despite seeing the likes of Jake Daniels and Josh Cavallo come out, football has struggled to make the LGBT+ community feel welcome.
FootballvHomophobia have been working to change that, with their programme centred around education. The focal point of their year is the Month of Action, which traditionally runs over February in recognition of Justin Fashanu's birthday.
Fashanu was the first British footballer to come out as gay back in 1990. But Englefield believes there is still more work to do on LGBT+ inclusion despite the progress that has been made in the 34 years since Fashanu's coming out.
Speaking exclusively to Mirror Football, she said: "The month of action is not just 'we do something for a month, then don't talk about homophobia again'. It's just a way we can bring football together and make a big noise. That helps to amplify what we do year round.
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"On one hand, we've seen some incredible changes, in the UK particularly. When we first started, there no LGBT fan groups, so no visible presence of LGBT people in stadia. One of the reasons the Justin Campaign launched FootballvHomophobia was to start conversations.
"Now, we've got nearly 60 LGBT+ fan groups, we've got huge visibility in the game. I had half an eye on a game the other night at Spurs and there was the enormous Proud Lilywhites flag in the corner of the pitch and that's amazing to see.
The month of action is based around Justin Fashanu's birthday"It's more commonplace now, but 14 years ago we could never have imagined that kind of recognition that LGBT+ people belong in football and we have a place in the game. So yes football has changed hugely and really, really positively.
"But then at the same time, we now find ourselves in very divisive times. We're seeing a huge increase in homophobia. During the Women's World Cup, homophobic abuse was the largest form of online abuse targeting footballers and that's a disgrace. So a real mixed bag."
As well as creating an 'Allies United' education programme and a new membership scheme for professional clubs, the month will see the FvH Awards ceremony. Manchester United and Arsenal have both been nominated in the 'Professional Clubs' category.
The Premier League duo will go head to head on 23 February at the ceremony at the National Football Museum. And Englefield believes it is crucial to celebrate the achievements of those working for LGBT+ equality in football.
Arsenal and Manchester United are both in the running to win the Professional Club category at the FootballvHomophobia Awards"The reason we launched the awards, we were looking back on the past, we saw huge change in football and thought 'what do we need to do to acknowledge the great work that's been happening'," she added.
"So we launched the awards as a way of acknowledging the good work that was already there. One of the things I would say is many of the clubs that are getting nominated for awards are doing that work already.
"I don't think anybody's doing the work to win an FvH Award, as prestigious as I like to think they are, but I do think it's really important to acknowledge good work where we see it. It's a really lovely celebration of what is good in the industry."
The month of action comes a few months after Stonewall's annual Rainbow Laces initiative. But despite some haters asking why the fight for LGBT+ equality needs two periods of action, Englefield is adamant both campaigns are important.
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"On one hand I understand some of the frustration, we don't want to constantly bombard people. Really, the reality is clubs will use both campaigns to send out different messages," she said.
"Some clubs will buy into both. There are undoubtedly professional clubs who want to take part in both events. For other clubs, they want to do Rainbow Laces, others want to do the Month of Action.
"For us, FootballvHomophobia has been around for 15 seasons and I think we're here working year round, we're very education focused, so there are different opportunities for clubs with both of those campaigns."
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