Ipswich Town's Sam Morsy wearing a standard captain's armband during the Premier League match at Portman Road, Ipswich. Picture date: Tuesday December 3, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story SOCCER Ipswich. Photo credit should read: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications.
Morsy wore a regulation captain’s armband for Ipswich’s two fixtures this week (Photo: PA)
Given this bleak row centres on an armband, we should probably ask what that armband actually signifies. In the Premier League’s words, Rainbow Laces exists to “show support for all LGBT+ people in football and beyond”, while Stonewall says the campaign’s vision is “a world where LGBT+ people feel welcome and safe and watch and participate in sport and fitness”.
This isn’t asking players to be pro-inclusion campaigners or even active allies, rather just to support all people’s right to live as themselves. Sam Morsy couldn’t even manage that.
Morsy, a practising Muslim, was the only Premier League captain who refused to wear a rainbow armband during this week’s Rainbow Laces fixtures, with Ipswich citing his “religious beliefs” as the reason. Marc Guehi, a Catholic whose father is a minister, also wrote “I <3 Jesus” and “Jesus <3 You” on his armbands, but did at least wear it.
Sheffield United’s Anel Ahmedhodzic also refused to wear the armband last season, although various Muslim players have worn it, including Granit Xhaka, Kurt Zouma and Mamadou Sakho.
Read Next
Marc Guehi defies FA rules again with ‘Jesus loves you’ on rainbow armband
Morsy has since been lionised in Egypt and the Arab world, held up as a last bastion against Western decadence and moral decline. The impact on the already oppressed Arab LGBT+ community could be quietly catastrophic. The scourge of hate it has enabled on social media exposes both how shallowly buried the discrimination is and how far there still is to go.
And perhaps the most concerning element here is Ipswich’s role in supporting Morsy shunning an exceptionally basic anti-discrimination gesture. How would you feel today if you were associated with Ipswich and grappling with your sexuality?
Alongside this, Ipswich’s squad have seemingly excused Morsy’s choice, which makes it appear they support it. That the same thing happened at Sheffield United last season is doubly telling.
Of course, LGBT+ discrimination in football extends far beyond the leafy boundaries of Suffolk. As Jon Holmes, founder of Sports Media LGBT+, tells The i Paper: “If we become too fixated on armbands, then we’re missing the bigger picture. There’s a real overlap here between a lot of campaigns that the Premier League does.
“So No Room For Racism celebrates black role models in the game, but also that focus on anti-discrimination. Later into the season, the Premier League has Inside Matters, which talks about mental health, and particularly men’s mental health. I would hope more reference could be made about how these different messages overlap and intercept. That would be really, really useful.
“What we should be thinking about is the impact that this has on particularly LGBT+ young people, wondering whether they have a place in the game, whether they would be accepted by their teammates, able to kind of share that they were gay or bisexual.”
According to the FA, there were nearly 300 proven discrimination charges relating to sexual orientation in 2022-23 in the grassroots game alone. Stonewall has revealed one in four LGBT+ people still do not feel welcome at live sports events, with that number rising to one in three for LGBT+ people from ethnic minorities.
The investigation into Tottenham fans’ homophobic chanting during the 3-0 win over Manchester United is still ongoing, and 21 per cent of LGBT+ fans felt they had been discriminated against for their sexual orientation when attending a live sporting event in the last year.
Whether it’s Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez filming himself and his Argentina teammates singing a transphobic (and racist) chant, or the vile abuse Kirsty Mewis and Sam Kerr received after their recent pregnancy announcement, this is a problem on all levels.
So, what to do about it? Gay Scottish ex-footballer Zander Murray has advocated for a stronger and more direct anti-homophobia campaign to replace or improve Rainbow Laces, which had its annual funding halved by the Premier League last year. Holmes also says Rainbow Laces “could be strengthened” to have “a stronger anti-discrimination focus”.
Read Next
Ipswich LGBT+ fans ‘disappointed’ club captain refused to wear rainbow armband
Nearly two billion people worldwide interact with the Premier League weekly, and on a fan level there is so much more it can do with that platform to promote LGBT+ understanding and acceptance. Murray talks of players still refusing to sign Pride-related shirts – Wolfsburg’s Kevin Behrens did this just last month, adding “I won’t sign that gay shit”, before later apologising – while the rainbow armband has become a key signifier as fewer and fewer use the laces. On that front, it clearly isn’t working.
The form, content and depth of LGBT+ education desperately needs to improve in dressing rooms. Coaches need better help and preparation for how to deal with discrimination and complex LGBT+ topics.
Many players feel they are forced to wear rainbow laces or armbands without the requisite education of why. It’s not news that people do not like being told what to do, or shamed into representing something they do not understand, especially if they consider it to threaten their faith or family.
As Idrissa Gueye’s refusal to wear shirts with rainbow numbers while at Paris Saint-Germain shows, expanding Rainbow Laces to every player’s shirts would create further conflict, but who should the burden of action fall upon here?
As reported by The Athletic, Manchester United caved to Noussair Mazraoui’s refusal to wear a pro-LGBT+ walk-out jacket against Everton. Given Bruno Fernandes has called the rainbow armband “a sign of respect” to make LGBT+ fans “feel supported”, what could have been a subtly powerful gesture was kiboshed to cater for one man.
Both the Premier League and clubs need to do far more to foster acceptance, but equally if players choose not to participate, they should be the ones facing consequences, not LGBT+ people.
Footballers are not exactly being asked to overextend themselves here. Aaron Ramsdale doing a recent Premier League interview discussing the challenges his brother – who is gay – faces, has been held up as particularly powerful.
Without taking anything away from him, this is only because the bar for footballing allyship is so desperately low. Players are clearly still concerned of criticism from teammates or being perceived as less masculine for supporting LGBT+ causes.
That this furore focuses on an armband which could signify almost anything the wearer wanted it to only exposes just how far football still has to go on in combatting anti-LGBT+ discrimination.
For all the platitudes and pats on the back clubs like to give themselves for a few social media posts and some psychedelic corner flags, it is just not enough.