Yellow Card for F.A on Homophobia

The Football Association has postponed the premiere of a short video to tackle homophobia in the sport.

The premiere of the 90-second advert was due to take place on Thursday February 11th with a special event at Wembley Stadium, organised by the FA and football's anti-homophobia and racism body Kick It Out. But FA chiefs have said that they needed more time to work on the project although it is not clear when the advert will now be shown. Peter Tatchell and John Amaechi have both consulted on the project and have expressed their concerns.

Peter Tatchell said:"This postponement comes on top of the FA's dissolution of the broad-based Tackling Homophobia Working Group. Set up several years ago, the group had helped push forward many of the FA's constructive initiatives to rid football of homophobia. The FA has now reconstituted the Working Group with a hand-picked, much smaller and less representative number of members. It no longer includes all interested stakeholders. Many relevant LGBT groups are not included. I always wanted an MTV-style video, with an appealing, uplifting, positive message, featuring top players and a good music track. Sadly, the FA never seriously attempted to get top players to participate."

"The video agreed by the Football Association and Kick It Out features strong homophobic language. The main character, a youngish man, abuses a newspaper seller, tube train passenger and an office worker with anti-gay taunts. The video finishes with him shouting homophobic abuse at a football match. The captions make the point that since homophobia is not acceptable at work, it should not be be acceptable on the terraces either.

"I don't object to the use of anti-gay abuse to make a point. The shock value is likely to give the video the impact and controversy necessary to generate publicity and debate. It will get people talking, which is a good thing. But it was a mistake to not involve LGBT organisations in planning the video script."

Former NBA Basketball star John Amaechi adds:"The FA has NO strategy - NONE - for combatting homophobia. They have been promising an advert for over two years - the idea that they need more time now to enter a 'final stage of consultation' is a joke."

John Amaechi's take on the content of the video; http://amaechiperformance.blogspot.com/2010/02/strategy.html

Stonewall were also consulted over the project. A spokesman told Pink News: "We hope the time of this postponement will be used to strengthen the urgent intervention needed of homophobia in football."

An FA spokesman said: "After consultation with our Tackling Homophobia Working Group we have now produced a viral film which will form part of our overall strategy...We will now enter a final stage of consultation and will shortly be in a position to announce the next stage of the strategy, including the launch of the educational film."

Homophobia in Football

Football Vs Homophobia
The Justin Campaign have said that they were "saddened" at the FA's announcement.

"The postponement of this long awaited and much needed video has raised grave concerns regarding the FA's overall approach to tackling homophobia. The Justin Campaign hope that the FA will see this as an opportunity to review the way they consult on their new strategy and open up this process to include the wider LGBT  community."

"If the FA's new strategy is to include anything let its priority be the positive portrayal of LGBT people to its supporters, players and staff and the introduction of creative educational programmes, their foundation in sport, that engage with youth and adults alike on issues surrounding diversity. The overall message being that homophobia is unacceptable in any form, anywhere."

On February 19th, The Justin Campaign are launching an initiative Football v Homophobia, an international day opposing homophobia in football and an opportunity to unite the efforts of all those working to challenge homophobia in football. Let the future of this initiative see the development of partnerships that have the power to bring about much needed change, in a much loved game.

www.thejustincampaign.com