October 17 – Players and clubs are supporting UEFA’s #EqualGame message at 58 matches across Europe as part of the Football People action week campaign run by the anti-discrimination group, FARE.
Activities are taking place in the Champions League, Europa League and the Women’s Champions League with videos played on giant screens at stadiums across Europe, announcements made over stadium tannoys and child mascots wearing #EqualGame t-shirts.
“I am excited to offer UEFA’s full support for the Football People action weeks, football’s largest movement for social change in Europe,” said the UEFA President, Aleksander Čeferin.
“By dedicating a match day of the UEFA men’s and women’s Champions League, the Europa League and European qualifiers for the Women’s World Cup to the campaign, we want to highlight our commitment to leading the way in making discrimination a phenomenon of the past and celebrate diversity in the game”, he added.
FARE Executive Director Piara Powar said: “The Football People weeks is an important period for European football bringing together people who watch, play or run the sport and supporting inclusion and diversity while challenging intolerance and discrimination.”
As part of the campaign Manchester Untied and France international Paul Pogba posted this video on his social media https://www.facebook.com/PaulPogba/
Pogba, who has had the world ‘Equal’ shaved into the back of his head, says in the video:
“We are equal in what we do, what we do on the pitch. We just do it for love and let’s share the same love in our sport.
“The player next to me comes from Africa or Serbia or Croatia but we play together. We are in the same team and we have the same objective, the same love of football. Share love together and that’s it.
“I am still young but I want to give an example to the young guys that are coming up, to see a different image of football.
“To give a smile to someone or just talk to someone, give an interview, and people can see we are just the same person, we are just the same even if I play football, we share the same love.
“We should all do one step forward to help the world, because if everybody does a step forward, we all go forward, so we should all help each other and go forward.”
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