Wrong result but fans send right message

Dulwich Hamlet didn't get the result they wanted in the Ryman Premier on Saturday but their fans made their point off the pitch as part of a worldwide campaign to kick homophobia out of football.

More than a thousand fans - 1081 to to be precise - were at Champion Hill and before seeing Hamlet slip to a 1-0 defeat to Bognor Regis Town, supporters took a stand with their counterparts around the globe by unveiling an anti-homophobia banner supporting FARE’s ‘Football People Action Week’, pictured.

The FARE network is an umbrella organisation bringing together fans in more than 40 countries to make a unified effort to combat discrimination and celebrate diversity throughout football. The club's stand at the fixture was organised by the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters’ Trust and came on the same day as students were invited to see the game for free by club officials hoping to build on the 300 per cent rise in attendances they've seen over the last three seasons.

A record-breaking 2,856 fans attended Hamlet's home game against Hampton & Richmond Borough on Non-League Day 2014 in September and the following week the club's players backed Stonewall’s nationwide Rainbow Laces campaign to end homophobia in the game by wearing coloured laces when they kicked off in the FA Cup against Worthing.

The Ryman Premier club's players and management were the first in Non-League football to announce they were supporting Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign this season. Now in its second year, the event was supported by many more clubs this season after being backed by the Football Association, the Premier League and a number of high-profile sponsors.

Stonewall, the biggest charity in Europe campaigning for lesbian, gay and bisexual equality, and the Gay Football Supporters' Network, the national membership organisation of LGBT football fans, say that despite raising awareness of the issue of homophobia in the game, there are still no openly gay or bi professional players and homophobia on the terraces is still rife.

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