Fifa has abandoned LGBT fans – but one US city is fighting back
SEATTLE – You may have seen social impact messaging at World Cup stadiums on your television screens. These were launched in May and are present at every stadium across a range of issues: peace, uniting the world, racism, education and being active. All are clearly appropriate. This is the biggest televisual event – what better time to send a message?
“Unite for inclusion” was missing from the May launch on social media, a collaboration between Fifa and Gianni Infantino. Its presence remains on Fifa’s website, together with the muti-coloured striped heart. It shows that Fifa are “committed to protecting and promoting all human rights and fighting all forms of discrimination, at all levels”.
During the Women’s World Cup in Australia in 2023, the “Unite for Inclusion” logo was present on big screens before each match and the messaging was visible throughout the tournament, where I travelled. In the USA, Mexico and Canada, it is deliberately nowhere.
There is one exception, an inclusivity island. This weekend, Seattle hosts its annual Pride Weekend and has designated Friday’s World Cup fixture in the city as a Pride match. It will be colourful, it will be aspirational, it will be proud and it will be brilliant.
“Seattle and Washington State have a long history of welcoming people from different backgrounds, cultures, identities, and experiences, and Pride Weekend is an important part of that story,” Hedda McLendon, the senior vice-president of legacy for Seattle FWC26, tells me.
“Our goal has never been to create something separate from the community. Instead, we’ve worked alongside LGBTQ+ leaders, artists, businesses, and organisations to elevate the Pride celebrations that already exist and help connect visitors to them. We want people who come here for the World Cup to experience the authenticity, creativity, and inclusiveness that define our region.”
Fifa have included social impact messaging on certain issues… just not inclusivity (Photo: Getty)
Unsurprisingly, the initiative has been welcomed by the community, particularly in a tournament where visibility of inclusion messaging has been dropped. Eric Wahl is the brother of the late football journalist Grant Wahl. He serves on the Seattle Pride+ Match Impact Council.
“Pride month is critically important to me, particularly as someone who grew up gay in Kansas,” Wahl says. “Being able to see the welcome and acceptance for queer people elsewhere can act as a powerful motivator for queer people in states and towns in which that same welcome and acceptance isn’t in evidence.”
The match isn’t universally popular, given the two nations who play in Seattle on Friday. Egypt’s Football Association sent a letter to Fifa in which they “categorically reject any activities promoting LGBTQ+ during the match,” because they could “provoke cultural and religious sensitivities among fans”.
To which my response would be: don’t turn up then and forfeit the match. Before and during the World Cup in Qatar, when rainbow flags were being taken off supporters and Wales fans had rainbow bucket hats confiscated, we were told that we had to respect the culture of the host nation, even when it victimised the LGBTQ+ community. So…respect the host city and their Pride Weekend.
“Seattle has shown the courage and clarity that Fifa has too often lacked,” says veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. “The city and its organisers deserve great credit for making LGBT+ inclusion visible around the 26 June match, despite objections from the participating teams, Egypt and Iran. They have sent an important message that LGBT+ fans are welcome, and that rainbow flags should not be treated as provocative, disruptive or dangerous.”
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It is undeniable that inclusivity messaging would be appropriate at this World Cup. Almost a quarter of the competing nations at the tournament severely enforce anti-LGBTQ+ laws or restrictions. There are no openly gay footballers at this tournament. There has been a significant rise in anti-trans discrimination in the US, to the extent that England’s official LGBTQ+ supporters group, Three Lions Pride, announced it would not travel for the tournament.
“Global soccer has long needed to directly confront racism, discrimination, and homophobia to protect players, fans, and children,” says Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “Any cancellation of Fifa’s well-established campaigns to eradicate hateful actions in sport is an inexplicable and inexcusable step backward.”
If Fifa believe that their other social impact initiatives and slogans make a difference (which they clearly do, given that they are using them at this World Cup), logic dictates that inclusivity and anti-discrimination messaging on hate based around gender and sexuality would also make a difference.
But presumably at least Fifa are embracing the Pride match organised by Seattle, right? They might have dropped their own messaging but they wouldn’t distance themselves from inclusivity work? Well, about that…
“I must clarify that there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the World Cup,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino told Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche in January. “There will be a FIFA World Cup match in Seattle and, on the same day, events organised by external organisations will be taking place in the city. But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”
The question, then, is why?
“After Qatar 2022, I noticed Fifa rolling out new inclusivity initiatives, but they have almost all been focused on race; I haven’t seen anything highlighting the LGBTQAI+ community,” says Wahl.
“I think some of this absence is a reflection of the current regime in the United States and the degree to which large organisations like US Soccer and Fifa, just don’t want to risk poking the hornets’ nest by more openly staking out their anti-bigotry stances lest they experience any of the wrath that the US’s current leader is already known for in his pro-bigotry administration.”
I can’t disagree with a word of that assessment. In Qatar, it felt like the inclusivity messaging was reduced to please the hosts. It came back for the Women’s World Cup. To lose it again for the next men’s World Cup can only be a tactical retreat to appease the regime in charge of the major host country.
There is another layer to this: the message it sends to players. Tatchell has forged a campaign to demand answers from Fifa whether the 11 countries competing in this tournament where homosexuality is criminalised would select an openly gay player. If not, how does that tally with their own anti-discrimination rules? He has had no direct response to that question.
“Fifa is retreating from the very principles it claims to uphold,” Tatchell says. “They have clear rules prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. But it is allowing eleven countries that criminalise homosexuality to compete in the World Cup without requiring them to confirm that they would select a gay footballer if his performance on the pitch merited inclusion.
“They shifted responsibility back to the national associations, saying player selection is a matter for them. That is a flagrant abdication of responsibility. These associations are bound by FIFA’s own statutes when they enter the World Cup. FIFA cannot claim to champion inclusion while refusing to check whether gay footballers are being excluded from the biggest tournament in the world.”
This is all inarguable on every level. Fifa, and football, has to be better than this. If this is truly a game for all, that message means the most when it is most at risk of being ignored. It might only be a small climbdown on paper. In reality, it lets down a vast community. Let’s celebrate Seattle, their Pride and all it stands for. But it is disgraceful that Seattle is a mere island in an ocean of inaction.
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