Liverpool FC players celebrate scoring against AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League earlier this season. | ph.FAB / Shutterstock
Premier League giants Liverpool FC are at loggerheads with their official LGBTQ supporters fan group after announcing a new partnership deal.
The club has inked a multi-year agreement with Visit Maldives, which is the South Asian country’s national tourism office.
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The Maldives criminalizes same-sex activity between men and between women, with the Human Dignity Trust saying there is “growing evidence of the law being enforced in recent years” amid wider anti-LGBTQ discrimination and attitudes. Sentences include a maximum penalty of eight years’ imprisonment and 100 lashes.
Despite its brutal anti-gay laws, the Maldives holds a reputation as a largely friendly destination for LGBTQ travelers, due to its many privately owned resort islands.
LGBTQ tourists to the country are widely regarded as safe on resort islands, as Sharia law is suspended allowing alcohol consumption and other activities forbidden in the rest of the country.
In its announcement, Liverpool FC said “the partnership is inclusive of both the club’s men’s and women’s teams” — but its LGBTQ fans group, Kop Outs!, has said the deal is unethical and has launched a petition demanding the deal be terminated.
The group, which launched in 2016, is officially recognized by Liverpool FC and has a seat on the Supporters Board, which engages in regular consultation with club officials and is represented by its chair at main board-level meetings.
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Kop Outs! put out a statement shortly after the Visit Maldives announcement was made, expressing “profound anger… given Maldives’ appalling human rights record.”
The group claimed the partnership “directly contradicts the club’s stated commitment to equality and inclusion.”
However, when asked to respond to the criticism by local newspaper the Liverpool Echo, the Premier League club “stressed the club remains fully committed to championing equality, diversity and inclusion and a new partnership does not change that.”
That attempt to justify the deal has only added to the “deep disappointment and concern” felt by Kop Outs!, the group has told Outsports.
“This partnership effectively endorses a regime that actively persecutes and discriminates against our community.
“The situation of a resurgence of Female Genital Mutilation under the Maldives regime demonstrates that Liverpool FC are not taking their human rights leadership seriously.
“We find the club’s justification of this partnership, while claiming commitment to equality, to be wholly inadequate and frankly, insulting.
“It suggests a prioritization of commercial gain over the fundamental human rights of LGBT+ individuals and women and girls.”
Kop Outs! is demanding an explanation from the club on whether due diligence was carried out before the Visit Maldives deal was struck, and continues to call for a “reconsideration” of the partnership.
The group says it also wants to engage in meaningful dialogue with the club around ethical partnership policies and wants the criteria for such deals to be reviewed and revised, “aligned with Liverpool FC’s stated values of equality and inclusion”.
In the statement provided to Outsports, Kop Outs! added: “We are not prepared to accept empty platitudes about equality while the club profits from associations with regimes that actively violate our fundamental rights.
“Liverpool FC must demonstrate that its commitment to equality is more than just words on a page. It must be reflected in its actions. We await a prompt and substantive response.”
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