Only some club accounts displayed the rainbow laces imagery
Manchester United and Liverpool have come under scrutiny for geolocating their support for the Rainbow Laces campaign.
In collaboration with Stonewall, the Rainbow Laces campaign champions diversity in a show of solidarity with the LGBT community. Between December 4-13, captains wear rainbow coloured armbands, while corner flags also display the rainbow colours, and many players and referees don rainbow laces on their boots.
Premier League clubs have shown their support for the campaign on social media by rebranding their imagery, with Manchester United displaying a ‘One Love’ profile picture, with a rainbow theme.
Clubs that have a global following such as United and Liverpool, though, have been scrutinised for not making their support for the campaign universal across every account.
As seen below, United’s main account intended for a British audience showed its support for the campaign, but it was noted that their Malaysian account did not.
In the image below, Liverpool’s British and Brazilian accounts can be seen supporting the campaign, while their Arabic and Indonesian accounts can be seen not displaying the same imagery.
Tottenham Hotspur are also among the clubs to show inconsistencies in their support for the campaign across various social accounts.
Speaking to The Athletic, Middle Eastern football journalist Wael Jabil, who runs a digital content agency which manages various Arabic language social media accounts, said: “It’s a bit of a tricky one. At the end of the day, you will probably get very little positive response if you post (pro-LGBT rights) content on Arabic accounts.”
The Athletic wrote that while it may seem cowardly from the clubs, “clubs take the view that it may do the cause more harm than good” to post something that will get an overwhelmingly negative response and become a lightning bolt for bigotry.
This sort of social media strategy is not exclusively implemented when it comes to the rainbow laces campaign, though. Clubs apply the same logic to Remembrance Sunday, and often avoid using the poppy for club accounts based in the Middle East.
The UK is not a haven of LGBT acceptance, though, and negative responses to the rainbow laces campaign are not exclusive to other parts of the world.
West Ham United, among other clubs, have posted comments on their own posts in support of the campaign, clarifying that “our club is a supportive, inclusive organisation that stands against inequality, racism and any form of discrimination. We will not tolerate inflammatory or hurtful comments on our page.”
