{"id":490207,"date":"2026-02-19T13:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/490207\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T13:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:32:08","slug":"efl-rainbow-ball-returns-to-efl-as-part-of-anti-homophobia-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/490207\/","title":{"rendered":"EFL: Rainbow ball returns to EFL as part of anti-homophobia campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Puma&#8217;s Rainbow ball will return to the English Football League as part of an on-going campaign against discrimination and homophobia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The special edition rainbow ball was introduced in 2024 to mark LGBTQ+ History Month and will be used at every EFL game from 20 February until 1 March.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Manufacturers Puma will make a donation to Football v Homophobia for every goal scored with their rainbow ball across the Championship, League One and League Two.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The donations will help support education against homophobia and promote inclusion across the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The EFL have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WUzpGSHGlKA\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">released a video, external<\/a> to coincide with the campaign which features a Preston North End fan who was charged with a hate crime following homophobic chanting during an FA Cup fixture against Chelsea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The rainbow ball will also feature in EFL partner EA Sports&#8217; FC 26 video game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The rainbow ball is a powerful symbol of the values we uphold across the EFL all season long,&#8221; EFL chief executive officer Trevor Birch said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It not only reflects our longstanding commitment to ensuring the League is representative of all its diverse communities, but also reminds us that we all have a role to play in creating an environment in which everyone feels they truly belong.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Puma&#8217;s Rainbow ball will return to the English Football League as part of an on-going campaign against discrimination&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-490207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}