The Essex County FA and The Football Association are delighted to be a part of the 2021 Rainbow Laces campaign, visibly showing support for LGBTQ+ people in football.

This year, the campaign is taking place from Thursday 25th November until Sunday 12th December, with Wednesday 8th December named as the landmark ‘Wear Your Rainbow Laces Day’. This is an opportunity for teams, leagues, businesses, schools and leading sports personalities all over the world to get together and wear their laces with pride.

Everyone is encouraged to wear their Rainbow Laces to work and take and post pictures to social media, using the hashtag: #RainbowLaces. It is hoped that support will be shown by engaging with the campaign throughout this period so that, together, everybody can make football everyone’s game. Laces have been, and will be, distributed to many Essex teams.

As people lace-up this year, the call to action will be to have a conversation about why individuals are wearing Rainbow Laces. These conversations can be with friends and family, in a club or with team mates. An ‘Activation Pack’ covers some great conversation starters, alongside ideas on how to plan and execute a campaign or to show support for the campaign.

Find out more by clicking on this link, follow @EssexCountyFA on Twitter or search for ‘EssexFootball’ on Facebook. A limited number of free Rainbow Laces are available to clubs/teams who would like to support the campaign. Please E-Mail karl.sear@essexfa.com with the name of your club/team, your postal address and the number of pairs of laces you require, while stocks last.

The following clubs have already pledged their support for Rainbow Laces:

Bowers & Pitsea Ladies
Earls Hall United
FC Redwing Girls and Wildcats
Grays Athletic Girls (Under 11s, 13s and 14s)
Harlow Tekkers
Junior Red Star
Mersea Island (Reserve Team)
Springfield Girls
White Roding (First Team)