Pro League celebrates Diversity with Football for All

15 May 2023

This weekend, Pro League competitions will once again go in rainbow colours and in both the Jupiler Pro League and Challenger Pro League, captains will don the rainbow tie and corner flags will represent the colours of the LGBTQI community.

With the fifth edition of the Football for All campaign, the Pro League once again declares its commitment to an open and diverse football world, where every fan, enthusiast, player and employee can be themselves. Game day 3 in the Jupiler Pro League Play-offs and game day 10 in the Challenger Pro League Play-offs will therefore continue in rainbow colours. In addition to the rainbow campaign, the Pro League is also committed to dialogue with the LGBTQI community.

In the past year, for example, the Pro League set up a working group with athletes, supporters and experts who provide their input on small and large interventions the Pro League can take together with the clubs for an LGBTQI-friendly environment. In addition to the media campaign, the Pro League is also further pushing for LGBTQI-friendly policies, with a working group of LGBTQI athletes and supporters including a guide for sports clubs to create an LGBTQI-friendly environment.

“Sexuality should never be a stumbling block when you are doing what you love. That is the starting point of the Pro League working group. We mainly want to eliminate the taboo around homosexuality. I myself have experienced that too. Looking back, I am relieved that with my outing I could finally tell who I really am. Not only did that feel good and right, it also put me more at ease and everyone just accepted it. That’s why I want to put my shoulders to the wheel with this project: to support others with advice and above all reassure them and that you just stay the same as a person.”

Pepijn Lenoor, material man of Cercle Brugge

The recommendations from the advisory board will be compiled in a guide for sports clubs, for both professional and amateur clubs. For this, the Pro League is working with Margot Gysbrechts of Out For The Win.

“For us, the guide is a first step in facilitating an honest dialogue with sports clubs, players and staff. By providing them with concrete tools they can work with and easily start the conversation, we hope to enthuse everyone within the football family to participate in an LGBTQI+-friendly climate. That way, the football family will eventually become an example for many.”

Margot Gysbrechts, spokesperson for Out For The Win

By organising the Football for All campaign in the month of May, the Pro League’s timing ties in perfectly with the period of Brussels Pride, in which a delegation from the whole of Belgian football is also taking part this year. Together with the KBVB, ACFF and Voetbal Vlaanderen, the Pro League is committed to Come Together against all forms of discrimination and for more diversity and inclusion in football.

As part of the campaign, Club Brugge will wear the colours of the rainbow next matchday during the Football for All campaign. The club’s A-core captains, YLA and NXT will don the rainbow captain’s armband and the corner flags will also have the rainbow motif.