Preston North End Women are proud to support the Stonewall #RainbowLaces campaign to address homophobia in football.
Stonewall, along with Paddy Power and the Gay Football Supporters’ Network, sent laces out to every professional club and player in Britain to raise awareness of the campaign. PNEWFC, alongside QPR Ladies, were two of the clubs in the FA Women’s Premier League that got involved with the campaign over the weekend.
Although there was a delay in some players receiving laces for the game on Sunday, all players at training on Wednesday wore the rainbow laces in their boots to show their support for the campaign.
Captain Laura Walker was one of the first players at the club to show her support for the campaign and she says that herself and her teammates pride themselves on being good role models and being able to support worthy causes:
“Myself and my team mates pride ourselves on being patrons of our club and strive to do so as professionally as possible. It is always satisfying and important to be good role models and support worthy causes.”
“The #RainbowLaces campaign is a campaign that’s gaining awareness all the time and it is relevant to our sport so we are happy to be involved and giving the campaign as much publicity as possible.”
“We are happy to help in any way we can and hope a small gesture such as changing our laces can have a positive impact and gain recognition for the charity to reward its hard work and perseverance to show positive changes towards homophobia in football.”
Manager Luke Podmore and his backroom staff also supported the campaign by wearing rainbow laces across the weekend and he echoed Laura’s thought about getting behind the campaign.
“I’m very pleased with how the girls reacted to the campaign, it’s fantastic to see them supporting the campaign. Obviously you’ve seen it in the main press over the weekend and I think it’s great that we’re supporting the campaign and I’m pleased that we may make a difference, no matter how big or small it is.”
“It’s nice to see the girls getting involved with issues outside of the pitch. Football can carry big messages across the world and the more we can do to help stamp out homophobia in football, the better.”
You can still support the Stonewall campaign by texting ‘STONEWALL’ to 70300 to donate £3.
For more information visit the #RainbowLaces campaign on the Stonewall website.
PNEWFC will be releasing a video on Monday showing their support for the campaign and try to recreate the Arsenal video starring their first team players.
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