Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – Rainbow Laces & Shaun Murphy
Every week we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.
HIT - RAINBOW LACES
Sport has the power to unite people and bring people together.
Football, for instance, is stronger when it remains a safe and accessible space to all and makes sure everyone feels welcome, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
That’s why the Premier League deserves credit for once again standing alongside LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, in promoting equality and diversity through their Rainbow Laces campaign.
Between November 27 and December 2, the country’s top clubs come together to bring visibility to LGBTQ+ people in sport and awareness around their experiences.
All digital channels have featured a rainbow Premier League logo, there will also be Rainbow Laces ball plinths, handshake boards, and substitutes boards as well as the LED perimeter boards at the stadiums highlighting the campaign.
At all Premier League grounds, there will be rainbow armbands for captains, rainbow laces and pin badges for everyone to show their support.
Liz Ward, Stonewall’s Director of Programmes, reiterated how Rainbow Laces aims to ensure that LGBTQ+ people feel accepted in their full identity, enabling them with a platform to thrive, not just survive.
“In 2021 we are seeing hate crime towards LGBTQ+ people rise continuously, a recent report that we did with OutSport showed that of the people that they surveyed, 88% of them had witnessed some form of homophobia in a sporting environment. One in five football fans think that homophobic chanting is just ‘banter’.
“Unfortunately for LGBTQ+ people in the world of sport, in the world of football, we still need #RainbowLaces to show that sport is for everyone.
“I’m starting to see movements, positions within PL clubs that we’ve never seen before. We know homophobia is still happening in games, in stadiums, and I guess what is heartening is that I think clubs now more than ever are calling it out in a way we’ve just never seen before.”
However, while progress is being made, there remains a long way to go in the quest to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for the lesbian, gay, bi, and trans football community.
Only this week, Instagram suspending the page of Rainbow Devils, the officially recognised LGBTQ+ fan group of Manchester United FC, following complaints from homophobes.
Hours after the club had unveiled a new Rainbow Devils banner at Old Trafford, thousands of homophobic responses led to a number of reports against the group’s page, resulting in Instagram disabling the account.
By removing their platform, Instagram signalled that they were effectively siding with homophobia, albeit unintentionally, causing an untold amount of hurt to LGBTQ+ fans on the social media platform.
Sophie Williams and Eric Najib, co-chairs of Rainbow Devils, said: “This incident shows exactly why LGBTQ+ groups are needed, there is widespread homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in the game and all, including social media giants, need to tackle it and not victimise minority groups like ours just trying to find a welcoming home in the game.”
Recent years have seen oppressive regimes and countries with poor human rights records related to LGBTQ+ people become further associated with football. The 2018 and 2022 World Cups were granted by FIFA to Russia and Qatar, whilst representatives of another oppressive regime in Saudi Arabia have been allowed to take ownership of another Premier League club – Newcastle United.
Crystal Palace’s official LGBTQ+ supporters club, Proud and Palace, have called on organisations at the top of world football, including the Premier League, to do more to back up their words with more actions.
In a statement, they said: “To those at the top, we ask you to be better allies, and to put action behind your words, and this Rainbow Laces campaign, while you ask fans to ‘Lace up, Speak up’, to look yourselves in the mirror and ask yourselves to do the same thing.
Former Manchester United and England defender, Rio Ferdinand, believes that Rainbow Laces plays a vital role in instilling allyship among the wider football community.
“I think it’s important to have as many people that actually aren’t gay, that are talking about it, acknowledge it and try to understand it and educate themselves.
“Having the Rainbow Laces, a little bit like taking the knee, makes sure that people talk about it and there could be a kid at home who has never spoken about, thought about, experienced anything to do with his sexuality who asks the question ‘What’s that armband about? Why is my captain wearing that?’
“Speaking to a lot of people in the football community, there are more allies than you probably know. Yes there are going to be sections of people who have hostilities and don’t understand it and won’t want to understand it, but I’ve been very lucky to meet a lot that stand on the same side of the line as myself, who would be happy to stand up and talk, and most importantly listen.”
Although football still has a long way to go, the Rainbow Laces campaign is a significant beginning for LGBTQ+ people in sport in raising awareness around their experiences.
Urging more and more people to ‘Lace Up, Speak Up’, can only have a beneficial impact in bringing visibility to important conversations, creating inclusive sporting environments, and driving meaningful change.
MISS – SHAUN MURPHY
The ‘magic of the FA Cup’ comes around every year when amateurs get the chance to play professional teams in the hope of causing a shock.
The Third Round in particular, when Premier League clubs join the competition, occasionally sees some of the biggest clubs in the world travelling to basic grounds with questionable pitches that can, in some circumstances, make the tie more of a competition than it may otherwise be.
The likes of Sutton United beating Coventry City (who had won the Cup 18 months earlier and were then a firmly-established top flight club) or Hereford beating Newcastle United provide the unpredictable romance that makes sport so exciting.
So it is in other sports, as Shaun Murphy found out last week when he suffered a shock 6-5 UK Championship loss to China's Si Jiahui, who was competing as an amateur top-up in the 128-man field in York.
Murphy, the UK champion in 2008 and beaten World Championship finalist earlier this year, was at one stage 5-1 down before a missed blue handed teenage amateur Si the chance to win.
That prompted Murphy to complain that amateurs could compete against seasoned professionals such as himself. He said: “I'm going to sound like a grumpy old man but that young man shouldn't be in the tournament.
"It's not fair, it's not right... I don't know why we as a sport allow amateurs to compete in professional tournaments. This is our livelihood. This is our living. We're self-employed individuals and not contracted sportsmen. We don't play for a team.
"The other 127 runners and riders in the tournament, it's their livelihood too. It's wrong, in my opinion, to walk into somebody who's not playing with the same pressures and concerns I am.
"He played like a man who does not have a care in the world, because he does not have a care in the world. I'm not picking on him as a young man, he deserved his victory.
"This is how I put food on the table. This is how I earn money. Since turning professional at 15, I've earned the right to call myself a professional snooker player. He hasn't done that."
The World Snooker Tour, understandably, issued a strong response: "Si Jiahui earns a place in ranking tournaments this season as one of the leading players on the 2021 Q School rankings.
“While he may have amateur status, he deserves his place in our events, based on his results. Amateurs play under the same rules as professionals, they can earn prize money and places on the World Snooker Tour based on results.
“Many elite amateur players like Si Jiahui train and compete full-time in the hope of earning a guaranteed tour place, therefore they are competing under significant pressure with no guarantees.
“Providing opportunities for the best amateur players is important for our growth as a sport and that is something that Shaun benefitted from during his early days as a player.
“We have come a very long way as a global sport over the past decade and that has partly been down to the structures we have built both at professional and grassroots level worldwide.
“For the best young players, the chance to compete on the big stage is a crucial part of their development and the development of the sport as a whole.
“We respect Shaun’s opinions, but in this case we strongly disagree with his comments.”
Murphy’s comments were backed by other players, with former world champion Mark Williams calling for a review of the system.
He commented: "I have been saying it for years. It is a 128 [man] tour and we never get 128 entries. I think it should be smaller, definitely. I think if you make it on to the main tour, you should be guaranteed a living. The only way you can do that is by cutting it down.
"I texted [Jason] Ferguson [chairman of snooker's governing body] the other day saying, 'if you are going to have top-ups then stop the top-ups having every tournament'. How is that fair? There is no pressure and they are free rolling."
Another former world champion, Neil Robertson agreed, adding: “I totally get where Shaun’s coming from. When you’re playing one of the Chinese boys, some of them are amateurs, but some are as good as anybody in the top 50 in the world.
“Amateurs are under a completely different pressure where there’s actually no pressure, because they’re not competing for ranking points.
“They’re basically on a free hit at a pro, so I completely agree with what Shaun’s saying there, because it is very dangerous.”
To further underline the fact that amateurs are catching up with their professional rivals, Robertson, the UK Championship reigning champion, also later fell to a shock 6-2 defeat to amateur John Astley.
He commented: “I defended Shaun a bit because I know where he is coming from. Maybe I paid the ultimate price for expecting things to happen and not forcing them.
“Maybe John was fired up by the row about amateurs and even what I had said about it. He was getting a lot of support from friends and family in the arena. It hurts, as defending champion you don’t want to go out in the first round and I made it a bit easy for him.
“Look, John played a great, brilliant match - the match of his life - and was fearless out there. He had a crowd, stood up to it and played as if he had nothing to lose.
“I was pretty off the pace for the first five frames, and lacked focus and energy. If I had played well today, I would have won. But I didn’t.”
Murphy’s stance is further undermined by his own experiences, having played as an amateur golfer when he tried to qualify for The Open in 2019, missing out after a 12-over-par score of 84 at County Louth.
He said at the time: “It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that I could go out there and shoot level par and get through to the final stage of qualifying. That would be extremely unlikely, but I have done it before. My best round of golf is four under par.
“If I even managed to progress to the next stage it would be crazy really. There are some amazing players in those final qualifiers and I would feel like a bit of an imposter, but I’m only 18 holes away. It is all a bit tongue in cheek and a bit of a laugh, but this will be a fantastic experience.
“I think the one thing I do have going for me is that I already have a full time job. Golf isn’t my livelihood. Relative to the other players I will be playing against, it doesn’t really matter to me if I win or lose.”
Pointedly, World Snooker Tour chairman Steve Dawson said that the manner of Murphy and Robertson’s first-round exits to amateurs has been "great" for snooker and nothing like golf amateurs.
Dawson said: "It has caused a huge furore with remarkable interest from snooker fans and others.
“These amateurs are not amateurs like you would find in golf where if they win they can't have any prize money. These guys earn the prize money they play for and £6,500 for any amateur is a significant amount which could lead to a springboard to their career.
"They have been fantastic stories and that reinforces our position in relation to having amateurs in the event. They really are surprises when you look at how far apart they are, not even in the rankings. It is just great."
The fact that Murphy didn’t advance from the first stage of regional golf qualifying underlines the impression that his outburst last week was nothing more than sour grapes.
If he felt so strongly about amateurs, why not make his opinions known before he lost and take positive action to change the system that he is so unhappy about?
While he said he was not targeting Si Jiahui specifically, failing to be magnanimous in defeat has understandably led to widespread criticism and ridicule.
Murphy is entitled to his views, for sure, but the timing of them certainly reflected badly on him and belittled a competitor whose only crime was to win.