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Premier League Rainbow Laces campaign explained: What is it and what has sparked controversy?

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Premier League Rainbow Laces campaign explained: What is it and what has sparked controversy?

The Premier League’s Rainbow Laces campaign, an annual show of support for the LGBTQ+ community, has been overshadowed this week.

Ipswich Town captain Sam Morsy twice refused to wear the accompanying rainbow armband in games, citing his religious beliefs, while Crystal Palace skipper Marc Guehi chose to write two pro-Christian messages on the armbands he’s worn in their past two matches.

The Athletic also reported on Wednesday morning that Manchester United abandoned plans to wear rainbow-themed Adidas warm-up jackets ahead of Sunday’s 4-0 win over Everton after defender Noussair Mazraoui refused to join the initiative. The Morocco international, like Morsy, pointed to his Muslim faith as the reason for his reluctance.

A well-intended campaign from the Premier League has found itself at the heart of a wider, divisive debate but one that is not unique to English football. 

The Athletic analyses the origins of rainbow laces and whether the initiative can retain a place in the game’s calendar. 

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What is the Rainbow Laces campaign and why was it introduced?

The campaign dates back to 2013 when Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ charity, initially teamed up with UK bookmaker Paddy Power to send rainbow-coloured laces to all professional footballers across England and Scotland.

Players were encouraged to show their support for LGBTQ+ communities by wearing them and its success led to the Premier League formally partnering with Stonewall in an attempt to improve inclusivity across the top level of English football. A report released by Stonewall last month showed that one in four LGBTQ+ people still did not feel welcome at live sporting events.

It has become customary for the Premier League to allot two matchweeks to the Rainbow Laces campaign every season, presenting all 20 clubs with the opportunity to mark the event with a home fixture. The Premier League distributes rainbow-branded corner flags, ball plinths, handshake boards and substitution boards to its clubs, as well as the laces and captain’s armbands.


A rainbow-coloured substitution board is one of the other ways the Premier League marks the campaign (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

The wider period, this season running between November 29 and December 5, also sees clubs encouraged to highlight the work they do to “embed equality, diversity and inclusion”.

That typically includes content with managers, players and supporters to celebrate LGBTQ+ communities. One example this year was Southampton and England goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale speaking out on the challenges faced by his brother, Oliver, who is openly gay.

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Why has it proved a talking point this year?

Morsy’s decision not to wear a rainbow armband for Ipswich’s 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest on Saturday made him the only one of 20 captains in the Premier League not to do so. A club statement, released on Monday, confirmed the “religious beliefs” of Morsy, a Muslim, had been behind the step, with Ipswich saying they would “respect” the midfielder’s actions.

Also on Saturday, Guehi, a devout Christian, wore the rainbow armband in the 1-1 draw with Newcastle United after having written ”I (heart) Jesus” across it. Doing so contravened the Football Association’s rules banning any religious messaging being carried on playing kits.

By chance, Morsy and Guehi were on opposing teams on Tuesday night as Palace won 1-0 away to Ipswich. Morsy again chose not to wear the rainbow armband, while Guehi had changed the written message on his to “Jesus (heart) you”.


Marc Guehi and Sam Morsy both made their own statements around the Rainbow Laces campaign (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Speaking to Sky Sports on Wednesday, Guehi explained his thinking behind writing the messages.

“I think the message was pretty clear, to be honest,” he said. “It’s a message of love and truth as well and a message of inclusivity, so it speaks for itself.”

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On Wednesday, The Athletic revealed United’s plan to wear rainbow-themed warm-up jackets ahead of Sunday’s game with Everton was scrapped due to Mazraoui, who is Muslim, refusing to take part.

Is this the first time it has provoked controversy?

This is the second year that a Premier League side’s captain has opted against wearing the rainbow armband, after Sheffield United’s Anel Ahmedhodzic, the Bosnia and Herzegovina international defender, did so last December.

Ahmedhodzic, a Muslim, wore the standard Premier League armband for a 2-0 defeat at home to Liverpool, in what was his first game as the team’s captain. Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder told reporters after the game that he had been unaware of Ahmedhodzic’s decision, and when asked by Swedish outlet SVT Sport why he had chosen not to have a rainbow armband, the defender answered, “Guess.”

Are players allowed to not wear a rainbow armband or laces?

Neither the laces nor the armband are considered compulsory but there has been an unwritten expectation that all players help promote the campaign. No Premier League captain, until Ahmedhodzic did so, had shown any resistance to the pro-LGBTQ+ messaging.

What are the rules around footballers promoting political symbols or messages on their kits?

Doing that, in short, is prohibited by the FA, who have specific kit requirements for players at all levels of English football. “Equipment must not have any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images,” it outlines under Law 4.

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The theory is that football, and a player’s kit, should not be used for the promotion of any beliefs, ensuring religion and politics are kept at a distance.

Those lines, though, can be blurred.

The annual poppy appeal, raising money for veterans of Britain’s armed forces, sees clubs carry the charity’s logo on their kits but James McClean, now of Wrexham in League One, has long considered it a political symbol and refused to commemorate the occasion, owing to his roots as a Catholic growing up in Northern Ireland.


McClean stands away from his Wrexham team-mates during the Remembrance Day minute’s silence in November (Gary Oakley/PA Images via Getty Images)

“The poppy represents, for me, an entire different meaning to what it does for others,” McClean posted on Instagram in November. “Am I offended by someone wearing a poppy? No, absolutely not, what does offend me though, is having the poppy… forced upon me.”

The same stance was adopted by Nemanja Matic as a Manchester United player, because of Britain’s historic involvement in a military campaign in his homeland of Serbia.

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It’s not just players either. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was fined £20,000 by the FA in 2018 for wearing a yellow ribbon — a symbol of solidarity with members of the independence movement in the Spanish region of Catalonia, where Guardiola is from, who had been arrested by Spain’s authorities — during an FA Cup tie against Wigan Athletic.

What has been the response of the football governing bodies and LGBTQ rights groups?

The FA has been in contact with Palace since Guehi wore his modified rainbow armband to remind them of the kit regulations, but no formal action will follow. Palace manager Oliver Glasner told reporters on Tuesday night he had spoken with Guehi ahead of the Ipswich game. “He’s no child. He’s an adult and he has an opinion,” said Glasner. “We respect that, and accept every opinion.”

Though the FA and Premier League are yet to make any formal comments on Morsy refusing to wear a rainbow armband or Guehi’s messaging, Stonewall released their own statement this week. “It has been incredible to see so many football teams at all levels support our Rainbow Laces campaign to make sport safer and more inclusive for all. When clubs like Ipswich Town FC show their support, it helps people feel safe and welcome both on and off the pitch,” a spokesperson said. “It is up to individuals to choose if and how they show their support for LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport.”

go-deeper

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‘We deserve our rights’: How LGBTQ+ fans feel about Rainbow Laces controversy

Is the campaign likely to keep going?

There is no indication the actions of Morsy and Guehi, or the events at Manchester United, will lead to any changes in the Premier League’s allyship with Stonewall. It has been a long-running partnership designed to welcome LGBTQ+ communities and heighten inclusivity and the resistance to the campaign has been nominal.

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Ahead of this year’s event, the league’s chief executive Richard Masters suggested it remained a long-term commitment.

“There has been considerable progress to make football a more inclusive environment for the LGBTQ+ community since the Rainbow Laces campaign launched a decade ago,” Masters said. “We are determined to maintain this momentum to make sure football is welcoming for everyone and send a clear message that discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated.”


Tottenham Hotspur Stadium lit up in rainbow colours in support of the initiative (Getty Images)

Are there equivalent campaigns in other sports?

The Rainbow Laces campaign is not confined to football in England, with Stonewall saying “over a million” people have participated since its launch 11 years ago, including elite athletes from the worlds of rugby union, rugby league and cricket.

Other countries have adopted similar initiatives and, like the Premier League, run into problems.

Clubs from French football’s top divisions wear shirts carrying rainbow colours once a season to promote LGBTQ+ causes, leading some players to make themselves unavailable for that round of games.

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Midfielder Idrissa Gueye, now in the Premier League with Everton, was twice left out of Paris Saint-Germain squads after refusing to wear the modified shirt. Mauricio Pochettino, the club’s manager at the time, said in 2022 that Gueye had missed one particular match for “personal reasons” and there was support from Cheikhou Kouyate of Palace and Watford’s Ismaila Sarr (now a Palace player himself) on social media. All three play at international level for Senegal, where homosexuality is illegal.

Toulouse and Morocco forward Zakaria Aboukhlal also decided not to appear for his French club in 2023 when rainbow kits marked the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. Monaco and Mali midfielder Mohamed Camara was handed a four-match ban at the end of last season after covering up an anti-homophobia message on his shirt during a match in Ligue 1, the top division of club football in France. Amelie Oudea-Castera, the country’s sports minister, called Camara’s actions “unacceptable behaviour.”

The rainbow colours also created an issue in the NHL, North America’s top ice hockey league, last year. The NHL reversed a ban on players wrapping multi-coloured ‘Pride’ tape around their hockey sticks in support of LGBTQ+ communities.

(Top photo: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)

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Oregon rolls through rugged schedule in first Big Ten season. Now, it wants to win it all

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Oregon rolls through rugged schedule in first Big Ten season. Now, it wants to win it all

INDIANAPOLIS — From the moment a giant inflatable duck floated along the White River within a few blocks of Lucas Oil Stadium, the Oregon football program had the Big Ten within its sights.

It was at football media days back in July when the Ducks preceded their formal Big Ten introduction with that humorous sight. But it also was symbolic. The Ducks had no plans to meekly waddle into their new conference. Nobody was going to overlook them, and with their dazzling excellence, nobody could.

By midnight Saturday, confetti fell, swirled and stirred among the No. 1 Ducks after a 45-37 win against No. 3 Penn State in the Big Ten title game. The victory was both electrifying and consequential. It ensures Oregon of the No. 1 overall spot in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff and a national quarterfinal in the Rose Bowl.

And it’s not done yet. Not by a long shot. The Big Ten invited Oregon to join the conference barely 16 months and the school took it hostage. Now, the Ducks have eyes on winning it all.

“That’s something we started at the beginning of the season, talking about how you get an opportunity to invade a new environment and somewhere maybe you didn’t belong and get the opportunity to take over that environment,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “We said this is the last step for us to become that. I’m really proud of our guys buying into that thought and building off of it.”

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“It all adds up to this moment,” said quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who threw four touchdown passes and 283 yards. “We have a lot more to go, but we are going to enjoy this one.”

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College Football Playoff 2024 projections: SMU favored over Alabama for final spot

No expansion team in the Big Ten’s previous 128 football seasons won an outright league championship in its inaugural campaign. Only in 1900 (Iowa) and 1953 (Michigan State) did an expansion team tie for the league championship in Year 1 but neither were unblemished. In fact, no power-conference team ever had gone wire-to-wire unbeaten in their first season in a new conference.

But this Oregon team is different, and now it owns that piece of history all to itself. The Ducks did it with swagger, which they displayed on that hot day in July. As Oregon has demonstrated many times over the years, it has speed and efficiency on offense. Against the Nittany Lions, the Ducks brandished enough power when required. Most importantly, they showed they can win in any style necessary.

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Wide receiver Tez Johnson was a difference-maker against the Nittany Lions with both his elusiveness and speed. He caught 11 passes for 181 yards, and his 48-yard touchdown reception pushed the Ducks to a 38-24 lead early in the third quarter. Gabriel scrambled to his left and found Johnson at the 26-yard line. Johnson spun to his left, split Penn State defensive backs Zakee Wheatley and Elliot Washington II and raced untouched to the end zone.

“They do a really good job of making it a space game,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “They got three wide receivers that are challenging; 15 (Johnson) is really challenging in space. They’ve got a really good running back. And they’ve got a quarterback that is poised and confident.”

In what became the game’s most important drive, the Ducks started on their own 25 leading by eight points early in the fourth quarter. Twice they converted on third down, once with Gabriel connecting with running back Jordan James in the flat for 11 yards, then on third-and-9 when Gabriel hit Johnson a 15-yard crossing route. When facing fourth-and-2 at the Penn State 35, Lanning gambled. Gabriel dropped back and found tight end Terrance Ferguson on an in route for 30 yards. Two plays later, Oregon was in the end zone on James’ second touchdown run to stretch its lead to 45-30.

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“To be quite frank, they sped up our defense,” Penn State defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas said. “That’s a credit to their offensive coordinator. They did an incredible job of speeding us up.”

What Oregon was asked to do in the Big Ten and still come through unscathed was extraordinary. This was a good Big Ten season, especially at the top, and Oregon was given a gauntlet of a schedule. The Ducks played both of last year’s CFP finalists and beat both by a combined seven touchdowns. They faced Ohio State at home and survived by a point, and beat a ranked Illinois team, which finished 9-3, by 29 points. They held on for dear life in a night game against Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium and topped No. 3 Penn State for the Big Ten title. Even in nonconference action, Oregon played its instate rival and won by five touchdowns, and used a last-second field goal to beat Boise State, which is likely to receive a Playoff bye.

After handing Lanning the Big Ten championship trophy, commissioner Tony Petitti left the stage, walked around to the side and took pictures of the celebration with his cell phone. Players and staffers shed tears while donning Big Ten championship T-shirts and hats. Fans chanted “Let’s Go Ducks” as Lanning, Gabriel and Johnson each took turns on the Big Ten Network set.

“As you just take a step back and look at the moments we’ve had this season, our big-time players made big-time plays in these moments,” Lanning said. “I love that part about it.”

They survived. They thrived. And they’re not done yet.

(Photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)

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2024-25 College Football Playoff bracket revealed: How does the 12-team field shake out?

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2024-25 College Football Playoff bracket revealed: How does the 12-team field shake out?

The first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff bracket was revealed on Sunday after an incredible slate conference championship games and one of the most interesting regular-seasons in recent memory.

The College Football Playoff field was expanded from four teammates to 12 before the start of the 2024 season. The success of the playoff format, which started in 2024, allowed for the expansion.

The Oregon Ducks, who won the Big Ten Championship for the first time, were selected as the No. 1 seed. The Georgia Bulldogs, who won the SEC Championship in overtime against Texas, were selected as the No. 2 seed. Boise State were seeded No. 3 after winning the Mountain West Championship. Arizona State, who won the Big 12 Championship, was seeded No. 4.

No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Boise State and No. 4 Arizona State each received byes into the quarterfinals. 

In the first round, Clemson, who won the ACC Championship, was seeded No. 12. They will play No. 5 seed Texas. The winner will play Arizona State.

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Penn State received the No. 6 seed in the bracket and will play No. 11 SMU. The winner will play Boise State.

Notre Dame was given the No. 7 seed and will play No. 10 Indiana. The winner will play Georgia.

Ohio State was given the No. 8 seed and will play No. 9 Tennessee. The winner will play Oregon.

The first-round matchups will be played at the home field of the higher seed.

Alabama was left out of the bracket.

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The national championship will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Jan. 20.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

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Column: Damien High's Nate Garcia is latest 7-foot basketball star in Southland

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Column: Damien High's Nate Garcia is latest 7-foot basketball star in Southland

Standing next to 7-foot center Nate Garcia of Damien High is like reaching the top of a mountain. You feel in awe, especially when you are 5-4. But what’s really intimidating is looking at his size-21 shoes. Two of my shoes could fit in one of his.

In 51 years of coaching, Mike LeDuc never had a 7-footer until last June when he and Garcia went into his office for the annual player measurements. Garcia was listed at 6-11 as a junior, so this was the big moment.

“It was me and him,” Garcia said. “We’re both humble guys. It was, ‘Hey, you’re 7 feet.’”

There was no screaming, no yelling, no band playing music. And yet it was a big moment, since supposedly fewer than 3,000 people in the world are 7-footers.

“It was cool I got to 7 feet but I’m happy wherever I end up,” Garcia said.

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Officially, he’s 7 feet ½ inch and possibly still growing since he’s 18 and it’s been months since the last measurement. He’s certainly gotten much better as a basketball player over four seasons and has signed with UC Riverside.

“He’s been coachable and gotten better every year. It’s been a great thing,” LeDuc said.

It’s exciting for LeDuc to work with a big man since he’s been known for working with shooters such as Tracy Murray and Casey Jacobsen. Every basketball coach dreams of a 7-footer walking into the enrollment office.

The funny thing is Garcia came to Damien as a baseball player. He was a pitcher and first baseman. Only after freshman year did he switch his focus to basketball. Imagine if he were playing first base now. Every shortstop who throws the ball high would appreciate his height and reach.

Damien 7-footer Nate Garcia with his size 21 shoes.

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(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Garcia said he’s always been the tallest member of his classes. As far as the genes in the family, his father is 6-5 and his mother is 5-11. The doctor told his mom from birth he had a chance to reach 7 feet.

No one gave him a talk on how to react when people stare at him walking through an airport or dropping his head to get through a doorway.

“I learned it on my own,” he said. “At first it kind of weirded me out. People would look, then look away and stare out of the corner of their eye. Now I’m used to it.”

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LeDuc has appreciated Garcia’s arrival and development. It’s like a breath of fresh air for a veteran coach.

“I feel real lucky,” he said. “It’s the first time my best player has been a center. We had to make a lot of changes and adjustments.”

One priority for LeDuc was getting Garcia to work on free throws, since he was getting fouled a lot and not taking advantage. He’s improved. It’s still pure comedy or just unfair for everyone else on the court when his feet don’t leave the floor while he makes a layup.

He’s gotten so strong that teams guarding him in the post face a decision of whether to play from behind or try to deny him the ball. His improving post moves make him effective and dangerous.

Southern California has had its share of 7-footers. There were three in 2022 — Jazz Gardner of Los Altos, Dennis Evans of Riverside Hillcrest and Sidy Diallo of St. Paul. The influx of players from Africa and China is adding to the list. St. John Bosco’s Howie Wu is listed at 7 feet this season.

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Other 7-footers from the past have included Tyson Chandler from Dominguez, Stuart Gray from Granada Hills Kennedy, Paul Mokeski from Crespi, Thomas Welsh from Loyola, Bol Bol from Mater Dei and Christian Koloko and Harold Yu from Sierra Canyon.

Being a 7-footer is rare, and shoes that fit can be rarer.

For LeDuc, whenever Damien takes a flight, the airport walk is always memorable and fun.

“When you’re walking one way, everyone walking the other way gives the look and double take. It’s entertaining,” he said.

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