Why Are Footballers Being Forced to Promote Pride?
Free expression is under attack in football as an increasing number of players are punished for refusing to wear the rainbow symbol. Why are footballers being forced to promote Pride, asks Freddie Attenborough in Spiked. Here’s an excerpt.
Free expression is under attack in the beautiful game. Elite football clubs and governing bodies have long bristled at the thought that the fans upon whose wallets they’ve grown powerful might dare to dissent from their beloved woke orthodoxy. Now, they’re turning their attention to players.
The latest player to be benched for non-compliance is Lyon midfielder Nemanja Matić. The Serbian international and former Manchester United star was handed a two-match ban this month after taping over an LGBTQ-inclusion message on his shirt in a recent Ligue 1 fixture. He has been forced by the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) to attend an “awareness-raising campaign… against homophobia in football”. Otherwise, he would face an additional two-match ban.
Banning players for their personal views has become a common occurrence in French football. Indeed, in the same round of fixtures, Le Havre striker Ahmed Hassan also taped over the rainbow design and received the same sanction. Nantes striker Mostafa Mohamed went further, withdrawing from his side’s relegation decider against Montpellier. In 2023, several Toulouse players were ‘withdrawn’ from the side after refusing to wear the insignia.
With Matić and Hassan the latest to join the ‘rainbow refuseniks’, the issue has drawn political attention. In May, France’s Sports Minister, Marie Barsacq, called for firm disciplinary measures against footballers who fail to comply. “Football has a massive platform,” she said, somewhat stating the obvious. “Society has evolved, and the language in football must change with it. There’s a full range of sanctions available, and they must be applied.”
Freddie notes the hypocrisy of an ‘inclusive’ policy that excludes dissenters, often motivated by religious belies. He also says the sanctions may breach the players’ legal rights to free expression as “courts have confirmed that individuals can’t be compelled to make statements against their will, nor be penalised for choosing not to perform gestures of ideological conformity”.
Worth reading in full.
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These are professional people, paid to do what they do best, which is to play football. I’m sure they didn’t sign up to be used as pawns in some battle over social ideologies. If they choose to wear a Pride emblem, then that should be up to them. Just because you don’t want to wear one, that doesn’t mean you’re homophobic, surely?
I wonder what happens when a Muslim player refuses to wear one on religious grounds? How do the footballing authorities decide which ideology is the more important?
It’s interesting isn’t it. These people forcing players to wear gay and lesbian symbols would go absolutely nuts if a club forced players to brandish a Christian or a Muslim symbol.
We are all now prisoners in a world run by LGBT fanatics.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having an unfavourable view of same-sex sex acts and the way they’re publically celebrated as if they were one of mankind’s greatest achievements and not just people seeking carnal pleasures for the sake of it. For as long as this doesn’t translate into interfering with other people’s right to have a different opinion on that, this should be perfectly fine.
To tolerate something means to accept its existence as legitimate and not to support it enthusiastically and demonstrate outward commitment to it whenever the opportunityi arises.
For ‘Pride Month”- a whole MONTH ffs – my local town’s prominent and iconic statue had an enormous rainbow flag/quilt draped over it….until recently. This has now been taken down.
The local Facebook group page has a surprising number of comments supporting this action. Maybe the tide is turning?
Why indeed should anyone be forced to be a supporter of Satan?
Can the players wear a cross or a shirt underneath the kit with Jesus on it?
No Pride Demon month.
Sick, perverted, evil, intolerant, fascistic. That is the cult of Queer and Trans.
last season Ipswich town’s captain refused the holy rainbow badge and it was fine, even with the premier league nobility.
“we respect the decision of our captain Sam Morsy, who has chosen not to wear the rainbow captain’s armband, due to his religious beliefs.”
Why? Why is any of this happening? It’s a war against decency and freedom and white people on all fronts, because the object of power is power.
Inappropriate hiring decisions enabling organizations to be taken over piece-by-piece by single-issue (Woke them harder, regardless if they want that or not!) political activists. And completely ineffective political opposition to that. As civil servant, people basically have a choice between two camps:
Because of Das Hemd ist einem näher als der Rock¹, it’s obvious what the outcome of such a choice will be. If the only positive concept of the state that’s on offer is woke, then, the state will become woke.
¹ The shirt is closer than the jacket, German proverb meaning People usually won’t act to their own detriment.
“completely ineffective political opposition”
Indeed. I wonder how much they really opposed and to what extent they were actually happy with the outcomes. People who go into politics seem to me to be more “left wing” (for want of a better term) on average than the people they purport to represent.
You’d think the players might help each other out defending their right to their own opinion.
The fact they they don’t makes you lose respect for them a bit.
Yeah not much solidarity. They have the power – all it would take is for a significant minority of big stars to simply refuse and many would follow suit, and then it’s game over. But it was the same during “covid” wasn’t it? Almost no-one stood with Djokovic and many turned on him.
Because they can.
Because it’s spiritually demoralizing when you are coerced to do something that is against your beliefs.
Because once everybody is crushed spiritually, they will be able to exert full power.
Because the only thing they want is power. Total power.
Yup. It’s exactly as Orwell wrote.
Putting aside the fanatics who push this stuff, im pretty sure that in the mind of your average, well meaning, credentialled “liberal” promoting LGBT “tolerance” isn’t ideological. They don’t see liberal values as ideological but as sitting above ideology.
They’re the useful idiots of the LGBT fanatics, thinking that they’re promoting tolerance.
Oh there are plenty of useful idiots – I have met many!
For me it always comes back to the same old story – they have their values and I have mine. I disagree with theirs but have no interest in imposing my values on other people – but they are very interested in imposing their beliefs on me, by force (preferably using someone else, like the state, as a battering ram).
They will shame you, brow beat you, sanction you, debank you, cancel you, set the police on you and if necessary jail you until you learn to be tolerant like them.
its a shame their tolerance doesn’t extend to allowing others to have their own beliefs…
😀😀😀
Brilliant. I will use that.
Barsacq’s problem is that society hasn’t evolved in the way she’d liked it to and because of this, she seeks to utilize the massive platform of football to influence it in the desired way and mere professional football players, who are just pawns in her grand game, must not dare to stand in the way of that.
I would argue that neither football clubs nor individual players of their own volition have the right to display political messages on the field of play. They are there to provide sporting entertainment, fans don’t pay to have political messages thrust in to their faces.
Personally I believe it is the footballing authorities which should be sanctioned for crimes against sport.
I just don’t watch much sport any more.
Neither do I. Darts is my favourite.
Seems safer so far – fingers crossed
Do you dress up in costumes to watch it live? We used to live near Alexandra Palace and we skated there often so we used to see the crowds for the world championships.
Only watch it on the telly box tof, or catch up on YouTube.
At the recent Sheffield Premier League a two pinter of euro fizz (lager) was £18.50. No thanks.
£18.50 for two pints, up north? Bloody ridiculous.
Yes I agree. There should be no flags, no political symbols, none of this BLM kneeling nonsense, just no affiliation with anything divisive unrelated to the sport. Also, there’ll be footballers who aren’t woketards and are not onboard with all of this ”Pride/Trans” ideology lark, who perhaps also have kids, and quite rightly do not want to be associated with an ideological movement which specializes in the indoctrination of young kids, preys on the vulnerable, denies biological reality, harbours sexual predators, autogynephiles and paedos and is full of misogynists that want to trample on women’s sex-based rights.
Meanwhile, the assault on young kids goes on. There is seemingly no escape from this particular toxic agenda. Too many schools to share but they’re all over the place;
”Here is the ‘Diversity Week 2025’ timetable from La Fontaine Academy
– a school for children as young as 4 years’ old.
It includes:
-Diversity parade
-Pride banner-making
-Protected characteristics assembly
-Reading ‘Julian is a Mermaid’
-DEI awards
Ideological indoctrination.”
https://x.com/JamesEsses/status/1936154581274337518
https://x.com/JamesEsses/status/1937761855528927453
https://x.com/JamesEsses/status/1937497727014961576
State sanctioned child abuse. Not a great step from there to Kashmiri rapists.
Good grief that is horrendous.
At least it’s a private school (sadly not one that went under), but I suppose that means parents are actively choosing to subject their kids to this stuff. Not that it seems much better in state schools, mind you.
The purpose of many private schools is to prepare high-status individuals for power, so they will necessarily be signed up to this kind of thing.
That’s horrific. Honestly, it’s disturbing looking at it. This is what teachers and schools are focused on. Education is now not about academia – it’s about indoctrination.
This is *really* scary stuff.
I wonder in how many schools will be heard the words “And now, for balance, we will hear from someone who doesn’t believe that ‘Diversity is Our Strength’…”
Rainbows have always been associated with the innocence and fun times of childhood. Be it kids TV shows, toys such as My Little Pony and Care Bears, all over stationary and clothes etc, but now this godawful symbol takes on a whole different relevance and meaning.
It’s sinister.
In the House of Lords canteen they were even serving Pride crumble.🤦♀️
Honestly, somebody had gone mental with some food colourings to try and make a rainbow topping but the end result looked more like something a contestant on The Generation Game would produce.😳
It’s more sinister than that: According to Christian mythology, the rainbow was created by God as eternal symbol of his forgiveness after the Flood. The people who chose it as symbol of their cult of the cardinal carnal pleasure were certainly aware of this.
Yes, just like the Paedophile Child Rapists deliberately chose the Butterfly, one of God’s most delicate, harmless, beautiful creatures, as a Symbol of their Cult.
The Paedo Butterfly Symbol has the two larger upper wings, one pink and one blue, representing adults. The two smaller wings, one pink & one blue, represent children.
This makes me so angry I can’t upvote your post 😡
Episodes like this reveal the true nature of DEI:
In order to be inclusive we must exclude people with certain beliefs.
In line with the classic communist strategy: in order to reach the perfect society we need to kill a few million people.
The day is coming though when the unresolvable conflict between the alphabet people and the Muslims will come to the surface and my bet is that the alphabet people will not come out of this on the winning side.
They obviously won’t because they’re numerically declining. But that’s going to come as a surprise to them.
One can only hope that the 2 sides of this argument lose badly.
Decline and fall. Can you imagine Bobby Moore et al being ordered to wear a symbol promoting alternative sexual orientation??
The authorities should now step back and realise they are now the ‘bad guys’.
Spoken like a true totalitarian.
Question: shouldn’t the players on the team of a player who gets sanctioned not show some support and solidarity for their teammate’s right to hold his own beliefs? Shouldn’t they rally round and walk out or refuse to play?
As long as they are confident that ‘Social Services’ will not take their children into care. It is this threat that holds back so much protest.
They have a choice.
Just say no.
Only takes a few to lead, the rest will follow.
I agree.
It would be lovely to live in a world without tyranny. But we don’t. We live in a world where tyrants abound and from time to time have to be confronted. And sometimes at a price.
That is why I have massive admiration for Djokovic, and the opposite for Nadal (who undermined him instead of just keeping his mouth shut).
Being a “martyr” isn’t easy, but it’s a powerful way to stand up to tyranny.
I never liked Djokovic. I completely changed my opinion of him after “covid”. Not only did he stand up for what he believed in, almost alone, but he was happy to repeatedly explain his reasons, calmly but firmly. I will never forget the flabbergasted idiot BBC interviewer Amol Rajan asking him “Why Novak, why” because he had forgone money and titles because of his stance. Rajan clearly had no idea that some people are not complete whores and will stand by their principles.
Exactly my take on Novak – follow and cheer him on in all the Grand Slams these days after finding him an awkward bore until “the madness”.
He’d almost certainly have gone past Margret Court’s record by now if he hadn’t been banned from entering the US or thrown out of Australia. To this day I’m still shocked that someone so high profile took such a public stand. Very inspiring.
I think as a patriotic Serb growing up in the period he did, he probably developed something of a thick skin and a “sod you” attitude from an early age.
Shout out to Pierre Hugues Herbert who also refused the vax, and is considerably less rich than Novak, and lost out on his successful doubles partnership with Mahut.
And to Tennys Sandgren, far-right conspiracy theorist, who is even less rich than both of them.
Those are the only three I know of.
Proud to say I have always liked Djok. The world needs to learn how to embrace awkward Serbians.
You obviously have good taste. I guess I mainly “disliked” him because I never especially enjoyed his style of tennis and he takes too long to serve 🙂
Then I’m guessing you won’t like Nadal and the way he rearranges every piece of clothing he is wearing before each serve.
Indeed
I admire his tennis and his determination but not the fiddling
I quite like Medvedev – not his style but the the way he just gets on with it, and Kyrgios when he’s not being a dick
Former F1 champion Nico Rosberg also refused – that caused F1 and Sky TV, who he had a contract with, some challenges as F1 had gone hook, line and sinker down the covibollocks rabbit hole – I still think he’s a bit of a prat, but I admire him for sticking to his guns on that
Ah I didn’t know that – thanks.
I know some US basketball stars refused too.
Kyrgios, though he got the jab, was one of the very few to defend Novak’s decision.
The Mail tennis correspondent was very critical of Djokovic but I guess you reap what you sow as he died at the Australian Open from a heart problem caused by the vax.
Pat Cash and Andrew Castle have both been supportive of him.
Yes, like the few bold ones who REFUSE TO KNEEL.
And you don’t need any laws to do this, only like-minded institutions to follow through.
I had to laugh at this public comment about the trans stuff on Breitbart:
“JK Rowling’s awesome. Gotta love her reply to a beta who harassed her on X, threatening to burn her books.”
“That’s ok, I still have your money.” 🤣
It’s actually an acknowledgement by the footballing authorities that the only way they can achieve their aim is through punishment of any player who is expressing dissent.
The player knows that his footballing career will be severely damaged by continual exclusion from the team.