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Posted: 2023-02-07 21:54:53

The Australian Professional Leagues (APL) will launch the first ever A-Leagues Pride Celebration round this month to coincide with Mardi Gras and 2023 Sydney World Pride, with the initiative set to take place across the last weekend of February (24–26) in Australia and the following weekend (March 4) in New Zealand for Wellington Phoenix home games.

Building on the success of last season's Pride games hosted by Adelaide United, which saw a number of displays including rainbow armbands, jersey numbers, corner flags, banners, and a rainbow seating pattern at Coopers Stadium, the APL decided to accelerate and expand the initiative to all fixtures in the A-League Men and A-League Women from this season onwards.

A crowd wearing red holds up rainbow pride banners in the stands during a game
Adelaide United held a successful Pride event last year in light of the abuse received by ALM player Josh Cavallo.(Getty Images: Kelly Barnes)

While individual clubs such as Victory, Adelaide, Canberra United, and Sydney FC have conducted smaller Pride initiatives in the past, this is the first time Australia's top-flight football league will host a competition-wide event that celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community.

For the past 18 months, the APL has been working behind the scenes with clubs, players, staff members, and executives on a number of education programs that emphasise the purpose of Pride initiatives in combating homophobic language and behaviour in football, as well as the importance of diversity and inclusion across all levels of the sport.

"The LGBTQI community is such an important part of the fabric of our game, particularly the women's game," APL CEO Danny Townsend told ABC.

"The women have been leaders in this space for a long time, but our men — with the exception of Josh [Cavallo] — are still so far behind. But now we're able to step it forward in a considered and organised way.

"We want this to be part of our annual calendar; it's not just over and done with, ticking the box and moving on. It's certainly a commitment we're making over the long-term: we want it to grow in importance in our calendar and we'll continue to work on the education programs that we've got in place and build on those, because the job is certainly not done."

In addition to education for players and staff, which include things such as bystander intervention training (ie. speaking up when you overhear someone using homophobic language), the APL has developed new stadium safety and inclusion program that was originally trialled with the Melbourne Olympic Parks Trust in late 2021 and which is now set to be rolled out nationally.

The program includes training for security staff on identifying homophobic abuse - both physical and verbal - committed by spectators towards players and other fans, and a system whereby fans can report incidents to an anonymous hotline whose number will be posted around the stadium during games.

Soccer fans hold up signs and smoke flares during a match
The APL will roll out initiatives that aim to combat the use of homophobic language and behaviour by both players and fans during the event.(Getty Images: Sarah Reed)

The APL will also use the round to launch new technology that moderates and filters out homophobic comments and images directed towards clubs and players on various social media platforms.

The celebration's marquee fixture will be an ALM and ALW double-header between Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United, which will take place on Sunday February 26 - the day after the Sydney Mardi Gras Parade. The men's game will kick off at 3:00pm AEDT, acting as a curtain-raiser for the women's match at 6:00pm at AAMI Park.

Adelaide United player Josh Cavallo, currently the only male player in the ALM to identify as gay, was targeted by homophobic abuse during an away match against Melbourne Victory last year, making this fixture a particularly pertinent one around which a Pride initiative revolves.

Victory was presented with a "show case" notice and fined $5,000 by Football Australia for that incident, which was seen as a mild "slap on the wrist" at the time. However, thanks to the growing awareness of the impact homophobic abuse has on players and fans, ABC understands more severe punishments could be introduced in future by the APL and Football Australia.

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