SUFFOLK FA will be supporting this year’s Rainbow Laces campaign.

The Rainbow Laces campaign gives everyone involved within football in the county the opportunity to come together and emphasise that football truly is For All, by wearing multi-coloured laces on their football boots.

There are a number of weekends that leagues, clubs and officials are being encouraged to support the campaign by wearing Rainbow Laces for their games, with the official weekends being November 17th & 18th, 24th & 25th and December 1st & 2nd.

Fixtures across those three weekends will see players and match officials wear Rainbow Laces on their football boots to highlight the importance of making football inclusive for everyone; whether you are a fan, player, manager, coach, referee or club volunteer.

This year’s campaign will see the rainbow laces worn by players from the men’s, women’s, Youth and girls’ leagues. Suffolk FA are also hosting an Ability Counts League festival on November 17th, which will include PAN disability players for the first time in this campaign as well.

Suffolk FA Inclusive Football Development Officer Kirsty Smith said: “Suffolk FA are proud to support this initiative and the LGBT community.

“This really is a chance for the Suffolk’s footballing family to come together and show their support for the LGBT community and start breaking down barriers in football within our county.”

The Stonewall charity has developed a range of measures to tackle homophobia in sport, issuing a sports toolkit for grassroots and community sport teams to build awareness and understanding of the issues affecting LGBT people, and how they can help ensure all sports offer an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere. Stonewall will work with all of the clubs involved in Rainbow Laces to support their activities.

Kirsty Smith added: “On the day of your team’s fixtures, it would be great for us to see your show of support for the Rainbow Laces campaign.

“This could be by you and your team-mates joining up to take a picture and uploading them to social media platforms with you wearing your rainbow laces. If you could use #RainbowLaces, @SuffolkFA and @StonewallUK in your tweets or posts that would be great!”

If you would like to request free Rainbow Laces to take part in the campaign, please contact our Inclusive Football Development Officer via email Kirsty.Smith@SuffolkFA.com to arrange collection before Friday, November 16th.

The laces will be distributed on a first come, first served basis. However, if you would like to get more laces for your players you can get them by clicking here