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The Football Association cancelled the launch of a much-anticipated anti-homophobia video this week, stating it needs to do more work on its strategy for dealing with homophobic prejudice both on the football pitch and among fans.

The video, made by advertising agency Ogilvy, was to have been premiered at Wembley Stadium today but was abruptly shelved, with no future date for a launch given. The last-minute nature of the postponement has been criticised by Kick It Out, the organisation that promotes diversity in football, Outrage! and other gay rights and soccer groups. Outrage!’s Peter Tatchell said in a statement: “It has thrown the Football Association’s commitment to tackling homophobia into disarray.” He also criticised the FA for disbanding the Tackling Homophobia Working Group, which was set up a number of years ago to push forward the association’s anti-homophobia initiatives.

The project was originally proposed by Tatchell in 2008, as a way of challenging prejudice on the pitch and on the terraces. The FA took the idea on board and Kick It Out was brought in to produce the video, which features a man aggressively yelling strongly worded anti-gay taunts at colleagues and strangers. It has caused controversy, however, by attracting criticism from some quarters for its use of homophobic insults in an attempt to highlight the inappropriateness of such language. Former NBA basketball player John Amaechi, an out gay man, has criticised the language of the film in his blog, saying that he found it “one of the most offensive adverts I have seen in a long time.”

Although the FA has not set a new target date for the launch of its campaign, it is claiming that the video has merely been postponed and not cancelled altogether.

Posted in: Campaigns & Politics |