Interested in your view on whether a dogmatic “it shouldn’t be happening there so we should do nothing - no sceeenings in the bar, nothing” approach from the club is the only acceptable approach or if a pragmatic “it’s happening, people will want to watch, so we’ll do screenings but we’ll be very vocal that absolutely all profit goes to LGBTQI+ charities” line would be acceptable.
As my Saarlander friend says, “Sometimes a blind monkey catches nuts”.
We had a very long discussion about this at Goal Diggers with options ranging from the noisy activism we’ve done in the past to the dogmatic, no watch parties. Of course we’re in a different commercial position as we’re not the venue, we’re the ones hiring the venues though with three figure attendances at many of our Euros watch parties they still prove pretty lucrative for club funds. Dulwich is in a different commercial position with staff wages etc to be taken into consideration. With the opening games about a fortnight away hopefully we will hear a statement soon.
www.pitchero.com
That’s a really nice tribute. One of the many characters making up the Dulwich Hamlet tapestryRIP Paul Thomas
Creator of the "Pink n Blues on the Booze", Paul was a devoted fan who will be sorely missed on the terraces
Can't they just play it 24 hours later on the Wednesday?
Seems strange.
World Cup semi finals day? Maybe Concord are expecting to have players involved and unavailable
We (GDFC not DHFC) were approached by a leading niche football clothing supplier to host World Cup screenings with a small proportion of profits (5%) on World merchandising going to Football v Homophobia. Turned it down as this smacked of tokenism. Just had a mail out from said company and “strangely” none of their World Cup merch mentions human rights for exploited migrant workers or the LGBTQI+ People of Qatar subject to police brutality and criminalisation for being themselves.
www.gwr.com
Must admit I’m surprised at how quiet the club has been over the World Cup. Similarly recently with Rainbow Laces which I didn’t see mentioned by either the club or the trust, though I may have missed it. Sad if that was the case given we were the first club to embrace them back in 2014 Dulwich Hamlet FC becomes first non-league team to support anti-homophobia ‘Rainbow Laces’ campaign
Got emailed this morning from GWR to say that my pre-booked journey for the return trip had been changed. The last through service from Taunton to Paddington is now at 16:38, so you could watch the first half!
Tony I feel there are real challenges with any campaign involving laces and it is primarily that players are reluctant to remove their existing ones from their boots for one game.
Sorry to have to say that but that is one of the weakest excuses I’ve ever heard for not even mentioning the Rainbow Laces campaign this year. Might note that at previous celebrations of the campaign players in our women’s team innovated and, for example, braided the laces into their hair. As an inclusive club I like to think our fans are open-minded enough to allow for those players who may chose not to wear rainbow laces if wearing them might conflict with their own faith or beliefs, as long as they do not then use this as an opportunity to express any hateful opinions. My own experience of our teams is that I would not see this happening. If the club had been just honest enough and said they forgot then I could live with that. Just sometimes I do get frustrated that the club does things for the LGBTQI+ community rather than with them. Little things like having the Football v Homophobia award picked up by two straight white men or the fact that nearly a year after being proudly told that “No Transphobia” would be added to the steps to the bar this has still not been done.
A number of these things I have mentioned to the club and it’s directors over the course of a year but none have been acted on. The most recent was rainbow laces when I noticed that there had been no mention of them in any club media I was aware of. It may have been mentioned in the club programmes or over the PA but not being at games due to my own playing commitments I may have missed. Didn’t see anything on social media or the club website mentioning Rainbow Laces or Stonewall which, goes without saying, seems pretty poor given all that we’ve done in the past.
