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Posts tagged ‘homophobia’

Aug 19

Barnsley cut ties

A few days after a new sponsorship agreement at Barnsley Football Club was realized, HEX.com, a crypto currency company, was allegedly found to have posted homophobic social media comments. Not something applauded or tolerated in this day and age.

We are advised that “Brent Morrisey, the owner of HEX.com made a statement saying he did not condone the actions of the 2 members of the company and said the members where not associated with the sponsorship deal however he also stated “charitable donations in the thousands of pounds have already been made to the Barnsley food bank by members of the HEX community in the past few days and continue to be made in solidarity between the communities”. So that’s the corporate take but the Club weighed up the implications and decided to cut ties.

Within 7 days after the post the Club decided to cancel the sponsorship with immediate effect. In a statement they said they “valued their fans and core beliefs above everything else”. Well done Barnsley.

The Barnsley LGBTQ+ group were happy with the decision and the Club’s stance.

Discrimination of any sort is tackled head on quite rightly, and even in our own sports enterprise a key consideration.

Some notworthy organisations worth following includes:

Kick It Out

Women In Football

Council of Europe

Out On The Fields

UK Parliament

Stonewall

Article researched and compiled by Kaya Stores.

Mar 8

Biased opinions

It strikes me as amazing that in today’s modern society we still witness discrimination and bias towards sectors of our population.

A missive from Supporters Direct brought a recent activity to my attention that necessitated a stand for equality.  The instance was a match played between Wrexham AFC and Bromley at The Glyndwr University Wrexham, Racecourse Stadium.  It was marketed and branded as a dedication to supporting ‘Football versus Homophobia’ (FvH).  FvH is an international Initiative opposing homophobia in football at all levels – from grassroots to professional clubs. It originated following Justin Fashanu’s untimely death by suicide.  This led to the formation of the ‘Justin Campaign’ in 2010.  Along with raising awareness, the Campaign has a strong focus on Art, Events, Education and Sports (including football).

Today is International Women Day.  Whilst we should be celebrating the female gender, football announces that discrimination is still rife.  A Survey in the Guardian has discovered that 25% of women working in football have suffered bullying; and the ‘Authorities’ (surprise, surprise!) are still not doing enough to address sexism in football.

The campaigning organisation, ‘Women in Football’, which published the Survey, said the game had an “ingrained, systemic problem of sexist culture” and criticised football’s institutions for not doing enough to improve it.

It reminds me what happened to the multi-coloured laces Initiative?

Thankfully at ACROBAT |FCSM and UCFB we have no such bias and are proud to be working with fantastic people from all genders and sexual orientation.  Wake up Britain – “All’s fair in love and SPORT”.