FC Barcelona's Gay and Lesbian Supporters Club

Keeping The Beautiful Game BEAUTIFUL!

An Official Reception at Camp Nou

However, just before the game against Sporting de Gijón on February 8 2009, the club gave an official reception for the gay and lesbian penya and the group's plaque was added to the other Supporters Clubs plaques on the walls of the Camp Nou stadium.

Now this was 'Positive Discrimination', FC Barcelona was giving its official support to the group, and suddenly the existence of the group took on a greater significance.

Just Effective Marketing?

Few clubs give open support to gay and lesbian groups for fear that they might alienate homophobes, who are all too frequent amongst football fans, but Barça has decided that this is not the way to go.

Similarly, other clubs complain about violence or racist comments but in practice do little about it, whereas FC Barcelona have a policy of zero tolerance and expelled the Boixos Nois supporters club because they it been been infiltrated by the extreme right – I really hope they get their house in order, by the way, but only then can they be reaccepted into the Barcelona family.

I'm also sure that paying UNICEF for the privilege of putting its logo on the Barcelona shirt rather than receiving money from an on-line gambling company is another example of intelligent marketing, but as a passionate soccer fan and profound democrat, this is the kind of marketing I like and I hope that more clubs will take note.

More Examples of Beauty in the Beautiful Game

I'll close this article with the words of Tanja Walther-Arens of the EGLSF followed by the declaration that was signed by the FC Barcelona Gay and Lesbian Supporters Club over the weekend of February 6-8 2009.

'In order to tap the full potential of football, all forms of discrimination need to be counteracted. While racism is frequently on the agenda, discrimination and abuse based on sexual orientation, homophobia, and sexism are mostly neglected.

EGLSF hopes that with this weekend in Barcelona, the first steps could be taken to create a number of suggestions and examples on what should be done to arrive at a situation in which players, fans, and all others involved in football no longer experience any discrimination based on their sexual orientation.

The power and influence of football need to be mobilised to create public awareness of issues such as homosexuality, gender, homophobia, and sexism. Discrimination happens first and foremost by ignoring homosexuality.

In the entire world of sport, clubs and associations with few exceptions choose to ignore homophobia and discrimination of gays and lesbians on all levels, for the simple reason that homosexuals supposedly do not exist in sport. But they do exist as the meeting of Queer Football Fan Clubs from all over Europe in Barcelona shows.

The meeting will hopefully bring ideas and views together so that in the end commitment and support in different countries will be collected by EGLSF and FARE to have more impact then regional or national activities.'

Declaration: “Fighting Discrimination in Football”

Bringing up all forms discrimination

Anybody determined to fight discrimination must first acknowledge the fact that there are other forms of discrimination in football besides racism. These include discrimination of challenged persons, anti-Semitism, homophobia, islamophobia, sexism and xenophobia. He or she must also acknowledge that any form of discrimination is always directed at people involved in the football world such as fans, players, coaches, assistants, referees, etc.

Incorporate anti-discrimination paragraphs in stadium and club statutes

Hostilities in football concern everybody, not just women, homosexuals or persons of different faith. For this reason, not just anti-racism, but anti-discrimination paragraphs will be incorporated in stadium and club statutes. These sections will state that nobody may be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation, skin colour, gender, challenge or faith.

Acting on target

Simply introducing this paragraph will not suffice. In order to make the public aware of the new provisions, their introduction should be supplemented by PR activities such as panel discussions, flyers handed out at stadiums, and comments by players. Activities should also include educating security guards, coaches, referees, assistants and youth teams on a regular basis in order to guard against prejudice and eliminate its foundations.

Support the diversity of football

Diversity in football should be presented as a matter of course, e.g. by covering women’s football on a regular basis or by reporting on the many ways in which gays and lesbians, women, ethnic minorities etc. are involved in football. By actively working together with gays and lesbians, migrants, women’s football clubs, female fan clubs, etc. we can take sides against discrimination and reduce existing prejudice step by step.

Making discrimination public

Discriminatory behaviour or wearing provocative symbols will be registered and documented in order to make it available for analysis. This will be helpful for finding solutions and/or for imposing sanctions against the wrongdoer or the institution in question. Therefore every club and organisation should implement an anti-discrimination representative.

Needless To Say . . .

I encourage all like-minded individuals to do the same.

Barça: A People's Passion

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