The cancellation coincides with criticism and unease over the video’s use of stridently homophobic language in a bid to expose and shame bigots.

Produced by top award-winning advertising agency, Ogilvy, the video was due to have been launched by the Football Association (FA) at Wembley Stadium on Thursday, 11 February. The last-minute “postponement” caused consternation among football and gay groups who were backing the project, including the football diversity and equality campaign Kick It Out and the gay-rights group OutRage!.

This video project was proposed by me over two years ago, as a way of challenging prejudice on the pitch and on the terraces. The Football Association agreed the proposal and Kick It Out was delegated to produce it.

Constructive initiatives

However, this last-minute cancellation was a big disappointment. It has thrown the FA’s commitment to tackling homophobia into disarray.

Contrary to what the FA is now saying, the video and strategy was agreed nearly two years ago. This postponement comes on top of the FA’s dissolution of the broad-based Tackling Homophobia Working Group. Set up several years ago, the group had helped push forward many of the FA’s constructive initiatives to rid football of homophobia.

The FA has now reconstituted the Working Group with a hand-picked, much smaller and less representative number of members. It no longer includes all interested stakeholders. Many relevant LGBT groups are not included.

I always wanted an MTV-style video, with an appealing, uplifting, positive message, featuring top players and a good music track. Sadly, the FA never seriously attempted to get top players to participate.

Shock value

The video agreed by the Football Association and Kick It Out features strong homophobic language. The main character, a youngish man, abuses a newspaper seller, a Tube passenger and an office worker with antigay taunts. The video finishes with him shouting homophobic abuse at a football match. The captions make the point that, since homophobia is not acceptable at work, it should not be acceptable on the terraces either.

I don’t object to the use of antigay abuse to make a point. The shock value is likely to give the video the impact and controversy necessary to generate publicity and debate. It will get people talking, which is a good thing. But it was a mistake to not involve LGBT organisations in planning the video script.

The ad agency’s advice was that shock tactics were the most effective psychological device to expose and shame bigoted fans into stopping their homophobia. They are professionals and experts in these matters.

The former NBA basketball star, John Amaechi, who is himself gay, has also criticised the video against homophobia on his blog.

“Offensive”

He says that a lot has been heard over the past 18 months about the video. “People have [been] talking to me about it coming down the line and there were even reports that it would have actual professional players in it.”

However, he says, the finished film “doesn't have any players in it, lacks a cohesive narrative and certainly is one of the most offensive adverts I have seen in a long time”.

He continues, “Maybe I am not cool, or tuned into ‘the industry’ but I was horrified when I first saw it and made sure that I was going to be as far away from London as possible [. . .] when it was due to premiere to much fanfare and media acclaim.”

Later in his blog piece, he says, “I have seen the advert and must raise serious concerns about the potential dangers of this concept as I have done at several high-level meetings – one at the FA’s old headquarters in Bow Lane on the 18th February 2009.

“The advert is incendiary, vulgar and to cap it all lacks the conviction of its own aetiology – to state unequivocally that homophobia is unacceptable everywhere.”

As for the cancellation, it is “less a sign of burgeoning understanding of the error of their [the FA’s] ways and more an exercise in pre-emptive damage control”.

And he is critical of not only the FA, but the Premier League, too: “It has become clear to me over the last 18 months that the FA and Premier League are not interested in actually changing themselves from the homophobic, misogynous, racist institutions that they currently appear to be. I don’t say that lightly, but my conversations with board members, executives and staff alike from the FA, the PL and the PFA [Professional Footballers’ Association] seem to bear this out.”