On May 2nd 1998, Justin Fashanu committed suicide after becoming the first openly gay football player in the country. 20 years on, Greg Double explores why football’s biggest commercial partners can ensure a better future for LGBT+ players and fans.
Putting penalty shoot-outs and major tournaments aside, English football is one of sport’s biggest success stories. It has successfully outplayed the hooliganism disease that ruined the game for nearly 30 years, it has also taken the lead against the stubborn opponent that is racism – though that game is certainly not over. But 20 years since the suicide of ex-Norwich City striker Justin Fashanu, homophobia remains the opposition running rings around the game.
This is not to do down the superb work undertaken by The FA, Stonewall, Football vs Homophobia, Pride in Football and several other partners who work tirelessly to combat the structural homophobia that blights the game. The most high-profile campaign, Rainbow Laces, has gone from strength to strength with over 75,000 laces distributed in 2017, as players from all sports brightened up their boots in solidarity with the LGBT+ community.
Unfortunately, governing bodies and activism can only take the fight so far and the fact remains that 20 years since Fashanu’s suicide, we are yet to see an openly gay footballer, playing actively, in the Premier League or Football League. Whatever forward steps are made, the proof will be on the pitch. Until professional footballers can ‘come out’ with confidence, the battle is not won.
The prevailing argument is that football fans are the reason that a football player has not come out. Given that Burnley fans shamefully booed Gaetan Bong for having the temerity to report suspected racism, it’s hard not to agree with this view. However, to take this as a reason to give up or just accept it as ‘the macho nature of the sport’ is lazy and dangerous. If boxing, via the lightweight challenger Orlando Cruz, can applaud an openly gay man both in and out of the ring, football can get
its act together too.
The key to combatting any issue surrounding inclusivity is education and normalisation. Perhaps the reason Orlando Cruz has been so well-accepted by the boxing community – arguably the most macho sporting environment in the world – is that the education hits you like left hook. In taking and landing punches in the ring, everything he does outboxes the effeminate stereotypes that blight gay men. Football requires more subtlety and the key to this is the education coming as much from sources you might not expect than those you would.
It is expected of activism and governing bodies to champion such causes and they do so well. If it is fair to say they have ‘the sport’ covered, the gap is in ‘the culture’. Pride in Football – a collection of LGBT+ fan groups ranging from Proud Canaries to Gay Gooners to LGBeeTs – are arguably the most active in this space. They champion the experience of LBGT fans (which potentially amounts to 2,165 supporters in every Premier League crowd based on the 2013-14 average attendance of 36,083) and look to enhance visibility, matchday experiences and inclusion of the LGBT+ community into football culture. Again, they are activists but crucially the space they play in – fan culture – is a space that is targeted by others…specifically every brand or sponsor, directly or indirectly, that has a relationship with football.
There are countless brands with a direct or indirect association with football that look to capitalise on football culture. You can remember Nike’s Scorpion ads, Carlsberg’s ‘probably’ and Coca-Cola’s ‘buy a player’ activation, but can you remember any of these brands overtly including the LGBT+ community in their football communications?
This isn’t to say these brands or other sponsors are not inclusive, but there is a real shortage of visible inclusivity specifically attached to football culture. Rightly or wrongly, advertising and brand marketing in football affects the way we view the game itself. The Nike/Adidas/Beats pre-tournament adverts are now as synonymous with major tournaments as John Lewis is with Christmas. Football marketing is broadly formulaic, they sell and reinforce the classic football touch points; romanticism, excitement, nostalgia, partisanship, emotion, belonging…but – with few exceptions – the LGBT+ football-loving community are largely
excluded or at least invisible.
Somewhat bizarrely, one football-affiliated brand who do brazenly champion LGBT+ inclusion in football culture are bookmakers Paddy Power. They were one of the founding fathers of the Rainbow Laces campaign and their hilarious work with Arsenal to encourage fans to embrace differences within the game. They’ve occasionally been accused of getting the tone wrong in such communications, but they are out there, which should be lauded given their approach would seem
to go against the grain of their ‘footy ladz’ audience.
Crucially, brands shouldn’t just be LGBT+ inclusive because it’s progressive and the right thing to do – it makes commercial sense too. Why on earth, as Pride in Football estimates, would you forget to target 6% of your target audience? LGBT+ fans, in contrast to everything I’ve written so far, are nothing special. As Paddy Power have probably noticed, they bet on games, drink lager and go to games wearing Stone Island. Failure to market to this audience as part of football marketing is
commercially irresponsible. (N.B. a limited edition rainbow Stone Island badge for pride weekend anyone?).
To conclude, football the game is moving in the right direction, football’s fan culture needs some encouragement to catch up with it. Through visibility in football specific marketing, brands can make a real difference in normalising and educating on LGBT+ inclusion in football culture. Football players frequently explain that what happens on the stand can influence what happens on the pitch. If LGBT+ can be represented and visible in the stands, the pitch will follow.
Article by Greg Double. Greg works for Synergy, a leading sports marketing agency based in London.
About Synergy
Synergy is dedicated to creating the world’s most innovative and effective sports and entertainment marketing for brands. It works worldwide from London and New York for clients including Accenture, Beko, BMW, MasterCard, SSE and Aberdeen Standard Investments. Synergy is part of Engine (www.enginegroup.com) the global marketing services network comprising best-in-class communications specialists.
Contact: Adrien Raynaud, Synergy
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