Premier League halves funding for Rainbow Laces charity

The Premier League more than halved its annual funding for the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, which is behind the annual Rainbow Laces campaign, in its most recent contract with the organisation while Adidas have also vastly reduced their own financial commitment.

Premier League clubs marked the Rainbow Laces campaign across two top-flight gameweeks between December 2nd and December 7th this month. According to the Premier League’s website, “the concept was devised to show support for all LGBTQ+ people in football and beyond.” The commitment involves public demonstrations of support as clubs sported Rainbow Laces corner flags, substitutes’ boards and captain’s armbands, while the Premier League’s social media channels also promoted the campaign.

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The Rainbow Laces campaign is in its tenth year. While it has now become part of the corporate furniture in the Premier League season, men’s football campaign had rarely promoted or discussed the issue before 2013, when a guerrilla marketing campaign by Stonewall and the betting company Paddy Power provoked the Premier League into action.

We are proud to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Stonewall's Rainbow Laces campaign 🏳️‍🌈

The Premier League and its 20 clubs will demonstrate ongoing support for LGBTQ+ inclusion at all fixtures between 2 and 7 December#RainbowLaces |@stonewalluk |

— Premier League (@premierleague) December 1, 2023

The Premier League formalised a partnership with Stonewall in 2017 and in 2020 they signed a further two-year agreement in which the Premier League pledged to “work together to promote diversity and inclusion across all areas of the game, creating safe and welcoming environments for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

This included a commitment to education within Premier League academies and the Premier League and Stonewall worked together to develop resources and programmes for coaches and leaders within clubs, while also bringing LGBT+ inclusion into player care programmes across all age groups. Stonewall also played a key advisory role when Jake Daniels, the Blackpool footballer, became the first male English footballer to reveal he is gay since Justin Fashanu in 1990.

Despite signs of progress, including the launch of LGBT+ supporters groups across the division over the past decade, a Stonewall report to mark a decade of Rainbow Laces, which is across sports beyond football, warned that surveys indicated that only 35 per cent of people agree that live sports events provide a welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ fans, and only 33 per cent agree that competitive sport is a welcoming environment for gay and bisexual male sports personalities.

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In a social media post at the end of November, Chelsea wrote that they were “keeping it up” for the tenth year of Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign. However, the most recent renewal of the central Premier League’s partnership with Stonewall saw a cut of more than 50 per cent of the annual funding provided to the charity, significantly down from the more than £100,000 annual contribution.

The Premier League is also no longer part of Stonewall’s global diversity programme, which is described as “giving (companies) the tools you need to take a strategic and structured approach to LGBT equality initiatives globally.” This may be perceived as significant in a Premier League context because their clubs often have global fanbases and social media channels in jurisdictions where homosexuality is criminalised. The Premier League’s relationship with sponsorship and ownership linked to nation states that outlaw homosexuality has also come under the microscope.

Adidas, the largest kit manufacturer in Europe, have also vastly reduced their financial commitment, which The Athletic has been told was previously worth in excess of £500,000 per year. When asked specifically by The Athletic if Adidas and Stonewall have any ongoing relationship that constitutes funding, Adidas said they were unable to comment due to commercial sensitivity. Stonewall also said they were unable to comment on figures with either the Premier League or Adidas for the same reasons.

Adidas added: “We have a long-standing relationship and proud history of partnership with Stonewall. We continue to look at ways to work together whilst collaborating with a range of other partners around our Make Sport Equal Initiative.” Adidas do continue to partner with Stonewall FC, a leading London-based LGBTQ+ football club (separate to the charity despite a shared name), while Adidas collaborated with Manchester United this week to host an event for club staff and the LGBTQ+ supporters group Rainbow Devils at Old Trafford.

In recent years, the charity Stonewall has received a huge amount of press attention and scrutiny, with an increased focus on their trans policy and the charity’s pledge to “remain at the forefront of campaigning for trans people’s rights”. In 2021, the BBC withdrew from a workplace equality scheme run by Stonewall. The broadcaster claimed its participation in Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme raised questions as to whether it could be impartial on matters that the charity was campaigning about. A number of UK government departments previously withdrew.

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It is unclear whether the intense scrutiny of Stonewall has contributed at all to drops in sporting contracts but sources spoken to by The Athletic, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not authorised by their employers to speak publicly, pointed far more towards a desire from some Premier League clubs to increasingly own their diversity and inclusion initiatives in-house, rather than outsourcing responsibility and credit to an outside organisation. The counter-view to this is that not all clubs demonstrate the same commitment and may therefore fall below the highest standards.

In a statement to The Athletic, the Premier League said: “The Premier League’s investment in Stonewall is for the provision of their support services. Since the formation of the partnership, the league and clubs’ own resourcing and commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion has grown significantly. This has led to increased in-house expertise, with policies introduced and now embedded across all activity.”

The Premier League’s latest and more limited relationship with Stonewall retains workshops on allyship and training for each club’s equality and diversity leads.

Stonewall said: “We’re proud of the partnerships we’ve developed throughout a decade of Rainbow Laces. Our partners are vital in helping translate our campaign into direct action — spearheading change and doing the work to create a more inclusive sporting world. Now in its 10th year, Rainbow Laces continues to have an impact and change attitudes.

“While the nature of partnerships naturally change over time, it’s encouraging to see more organisations working year-round to embed inclusivity throughout their work. We continue to work closely with a wide range of partners — including the English Premier League and adidas — to create lasting change and make sport everyone’s game.”

(Photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)