Help make football a more inclusive environment

Thursday 02 December 2021 12:00

Ahead of this evening’s match against Arsenal, Manchester United have published a new ‘One Love’ campaign video which encourages everyone to offer their support to their fellow LGBTQ+ fans.

It calls on all fans to take responsibility and be a visible ally to help make football an inclusive environment for all.

It also highlights the need for fans to speak up if they see or hear discrimination. We urge fans to challenge and report discriminatory behaviour wherever they see it. For any incidents inside the stadium, fans should report immediately to the nearest steward.

The club’s online reporting tool, manutd.com/seered, can be used to report any instances of discrimination online.

Video
We are encouraging everyone to offer their support to their fellow LGBTQ+ fans.
At tonight’s Arsenal game, and the women’s team match against Leicester City on Sunday, the team captains will wear rainbow armbands as part of the nationwide Rainbow Laces campaign in a visible show of unity. 

This follows on from last activity last week where the Rainbow Devils, the club’s LGBTQ+ supporters’ club, unveiled their new banner at Old Trafford which will be on show from tonight’s game against Arsenal. 
At the time, Eric Najib, Chair of Rainbow Devils, said: “For us the big thing was getting the visibility in the ground, we’re really pleased to do that. I think it’s important that we have an LGBTQ+ supporters’ group at United.

“We’ve got people who have started coming to games again because they’ve been empowered by the organisation, whereas previously they felt football wasn’t for them. We just want to keep going forward. Football should be for everyone and we’re really proud to be part of Manchester United’s All Red All Equal campaign.”
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The Rainbow Devils unveiled their new banner at Old Trafford last week.
What does the new banner stand for?

The Rainbow Devils’ banner features the six-coloured Rainbow Flag, which is widely recognised as the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ+) community. It also includes the Progress Pride Flag – which may be less well-known to fans. 

The Progress Pride flag uses a chevron featuring black, brown, pink, pale blue and white stripes, to represent marginalised people of colour in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as the trans community.

The chevron arrow, pointing to the right on the flag, represents forward movement while acknowledging progress still needs to be made on these important issues. 

All Red All Equal

All Red All Equal is the club’s overarching promise to champion equality, diversity and inclusion.

Manchester United is proud of its broad and diverse fanbase and we want everyone to feel welcome and be able to be themselves when they support United.

To do that, we all need to challenge and report all forms of discrimination – including homophobia.

If fans want to report any form of discrimination, they should go to manutd.com/seered.

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