Empty open-top bus to show number of out Premier League footballers to feature in Brighton Pride
The statement was organised by Paddy Power who blamed the environment within the sport
By Steve Brown
An empty open-top bus will be paraded through Brighton Pride Festival this weekend as a powerful statement to highlight that none of the 500 top-level footballers are openly gay.
In a powerful move, the Premier League will come under fire for its attitudes towards homosexuality with a bus containing every gay footballer on board – which will mean it will be empty, the Sun Online reported.
Paddy Power – who recently donated £170,000 for the Attitude Magazine Foundation for every goal scored by Russia in the World Cup this year – organised the protest and blamed the environment within football for not supporting gay players.
The bus will be paraded through the city during the Pride Parade tomorrow (August 4).
A Paddy Power spokesperson said: “The world’s best-watched league should reflect the community around it – in the UK, one in 50 people consider themselves LGBT+.
“And yet, in the Premier League, not one player is openly gay.
“So, we’re calling on the league to boot itself into 2018 and create a welcoming environment for its first gay player.
“We think an out gay Premier League footballer would have an extraordinary effect not just on the LGBT+ community, but society in general.
“They would spearhead profound change and, club colours aside, that’s something we support more than anything else.”
