England is into the World Cup semifinals for only the fourth time in history, with captain Harry Kane and midfield powerhouse Jude Bellingham their standout performers with six goals each.
Kane’s history of support for the LGBTQ community has been one of many talking points during the tournament, but another of the Three Lions’ main men is also worth a mention when it comes to the ongoing fight against homophobia.
Between the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022 and this edition in 2026, Declan Rice contributed to a major campaign to fight against anti-gay discrimination online.
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The initiative, called “GayVAR,” used a cheeky twist on soccer’s Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system to encourage fans to spot, review, and call out slurs on social media.
Midfielder Rice, who won his 78th cap for England in their 2-1 win over Norway in the quarterfinals, was a prominent Premier League player who took part.
FIFA’s social media protection service (SMPS) has already seen a 13-fold increase in online abuse during the group stage of the 2026 World Cup.
Significantly, “racially motivated attacks” escalated when compared to the same period in Qatar 2022. The full analysis of the current tournament is set to be released later in the year.
The previous men’s World Cup was the first to use SMPS, which uses moderation and monitoring software to conceal harmful content and discriminatory posts directed at players.
According to FIFA, during that tournament in Qatar, “homophobia was prolific, and platform responses seemed blurred by the cultural differences which seemed to bar action.”
SMPS was also in operation at the Women’s World Cup in 2023, when more than 20 per cent of abusive messages detected were homophobic in nature. There were nearly 100 publicly out LGBTQ players taking part in the tournament in Australia and New Zealand.
Earlier that same year, the “GayVAR” initiative was created by British telecoms company EE through its “Hope United” platform, working in partnership with the Football v Homophobia campaign.
Mimicking how the VAR system checks for rule violations on the pitch, “GayVAR” was called upon to intervene by comedian Tom Allen and former England star Joe Cole in a series of short videos that ran on social media.
The tone was more irreverent, with the campaign trying to show how nonsensical it is to react with gay slurs to in-game moments such as when a player dives, a goalkeeper makes an error, or a team loses a game.
Declan Rice supports the gay community
Rice appeared in a post-match-analysis-style video to directly confront the homophobic remarks aimed at both him and his fellow professionals.
“Homophobia like this ruins the sport for everyone,” Rice tells an interviewer. “We’ve got to tackle it. I’d like to see an official review.”
The midfielder was captaining West Ham United at the time, and would wear a Pride rainbow armband as part of the Premier League’s then annual activation of the Rainbow Laces campaign.
After leading the Hammers to the Europa Conference League title that season, he moved to Arsenal in July 2023 and was an integral part of their Premier League-winning squad in 2025/26.
Research carried out at the time for the “GayVAR” initiative revealed that nearly three-quarters of people in the U.K. thought that homophobia was a major problem in soccer, and that a quarter of those surveyed had witnessed online homophobic hate firsthand over the previous two years.
However, more than one in four chose to take no action, so a request was made to allies to be more proactive and report incidents when they occur.
LGBTQ fans and Spain star call out homophobia at World Cup
This summer, FIFA’s mid-tournament report suggests the overall state of online discrimination has worsened, and players’ union FIFPRO agrees that more must be done.
“As the FIFA Men’s World Cup enters its decisive stages, FIFPRO calls for collective action to protect players from a growing pattern of abuse that encompasses some media coverage, the aftermath of matches and team eliminations,” it said in a statement.
Homophobic incidents continue to stain live matches, too. During England’s recent World Cup victory over Mexico, Rice’s international teammate, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, was reportedly subjected to homophobic chanting from sections of the crowd.
Three Lions Pride, England’s official LGBTQ supporters group, called out the incident in a statement, and pointed out how FIFA has scaled back its public anti-discrimination messaging, something which became evident during last summer’s FIFA Club World Cup.
The “Unite for Inclusion” strand of its “Football Unites the World” campaign was dropped for this men’s World Cup, having previously been the only tangible indicator of support for LGBTQ rights in the global governing body’s suite of social causes.
Three Lions Pride, in unison with Pride in Football — the umbrella network of LGBTQ fan groups in the U.K. — said: “FIFA’s weakening of anti-discrimination messaging in the lead-up to, and during, this tournament has had a noticeable impact.
“As stewards of the game, FIFA have a responsibility to protect it, and to make it the beautiful game for everyone.”
It’s not specific to England, either. International players from other nations have also been forced to take a stand, demonstrating that the SMPS software is not infallible.
On June 30, Spain striker Borja Iglesias publicly called out homophobia on the social media platform X. The World Cup player replied to a user who directed a gay slur at him and for once, X moderators actually hid the slur post.
However, they did not remove it; it remains live at the time of writing, with the user, whose account says he is from Poland, still active on the platform.
lo que no es es para homófobos.
— Borja Iglesias (@BorjaIglesias9) June 30, 2026
Celta Vigo ace Iglesias has been highly praised for his willingness to speak out against social injustices throughout his career, declaring that he is unafraid to address these issues head-on.
Having elite players who are prepared to join in the fight against online hate becomes even more valuable at a time when FIFA appears somewhat reluctant to mention specific forms of discrimination that target and insult LGBTQ people.
Soccer campaigns may have already moved on from “GayVAR,” but we can at least say that Rice has joined Kane, Iglesias and a handful of other players who are at this World Cup and who have raised their voices during their careers in efforts to make the sport more LGBTQ inclusive.
It’s clear that more of those contributions are needed by the community right now, with FIFA hoping the software does the work for them, even while homophobes continue to exploit the gaps.
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