Wearing a rainbow-blue polo shirt, 56-year-old lorry driver Stuart Matthews drives a bus full of football fans into the green, misty hills around Brighton every week. On the gray concrete block among the meadows: Brighton & Hove Albion stadium, it doesn’t really fit there at all.
But things are often a bit different in the city of Brighton and the football club that are Ajax’s current Europa League rivals.
proud seagulls
Matthews was pleased to recognize this, for example, in 2019 when Brighton became the first football club in England to be a major sponsor of a Pride event. From Pride Brighton, the country’s most popular Pride celebration.
It’s a warm gesture of inclusion for Matthews, founder and president of Brighton’s LGBTI fan club Proud Seagulls. The proud seagulls and the club have worked closely together for years. They danced on the boulevard at the 2022 Pride Parade.
Matthews has been driving buses and trucks around the country for more than two decades, caring for injured British soldiers in the 1980s and 1990s. John has spent half his life as an Ambulance first responder on the sidelines of countless English football stadiums. He knows the smell of grass and mud, he knows the pale faces, the painful songs.
“Brighton fans have been the target of vile and hostile slogans for decades, even more so than the big clubs in London,” says Matthews. “Yes, Proud Gulls are needed.”
A well-intentioned video
Matthews recognized the need years ago when a well-intentioned video appeared on the big screen at Brighton Stadium in which players said something about the Rainbow Laces campaign, the annual campaign in which the Premier League uses rainbow laces to attract attention among other things. Equality and diversity in football.
“Then I thought: We need an LGBTI group that understands not only our fight against injustices in football, but also our fight against injustices in society.”
According to Matthews, promotion to the Premier League in 2017 and being an advisor to Pride in Football, a network of more than fifty LGBTI fan clubs across the UK, was the ideal time to launch the supporter group. “In our first year Brighton immediately asked us to help with the Rainbow Laces campaign. Our friendship has grown even more since then.”
With forty members, the Proud Seagulls are not the biggest fan club in England, but the numbers do not interest Matthews. Trophies, badges, polo shirts, even the website has opened its own wallet. “This is about giving the LGBTI community a voice in football.”
Progressive football club
Brighton are aware of this too: the club aims to be visible to the less fortunate in the Sussex area through all its activities and sets out clear rules for its supporters in its statutes regarding racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language and behavior in the stadium. If you make a mistake you could be banned from the stadium for at least ten years. In the second case, a stadium ban can be imposed indefinitely.
Close cooperation with local organizations such as the Proud Seagulls is essential in this social policy. Brighton & Hove Albion are a progressive football club and as befits the coastal city in the south of England.
Brighton is considered the “gay capital” of England. The student city is also pursuing an unprecedented green policy by British standards: not long ago the Greens had a majority on the city council. Seven in ten residents of the Brighton & Hove area voted against Brexit in 2016.
poker boss
The progressivism of the region is reflected in the football club with chalk lines. Tony Bloom, 53, from Brighton, saved his childhood sweetheart from death in 2009 with a bag of money he collected as a poker king and runs the club using algorithms developed by gambling consultancy Starlizard.
For example, Brighton scouts discovered South American pearls Moisés Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister, which were resold in the summer for a total of 173 million euros. Don’t forget Japanese dribbler Kaoru Mitoma or young Irish talent Evan Ferguson. Or the three Dutchmen Joël Veltman, Bart Verbruggen and Jan Paul van Hecke.
Poker player Bloom, who is said to have spent hours in the gaming halls on the famous Brighton Pier in his childhood, is not afraid of gambling. After the much richer Chelsea persuaded Brighton coach Graham Potter, who is highly valued by Brighton, to transfer in 2022 following a summer break, Bloom quickly signed unknown Italian coach Roberto De Zerbi from Shakhtar Donetsk.
Praise from Pep
“RDZ” took Brighton to Europe for the first time in its 122-year existence. Even more valuable was the way it was done. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is a big fan.
“No team plays like Brighton. He keeps the ball for a long time, his goalkeeper is a controlled midfielder. This is unique. It’s like a star restaurant. I’m learning a lot from him. Brighton are masters of taking advantage of the free man.” Especially now: “They are the best team in the world in this respect,” praised Guardiola De Zerbi at the end of last season.
“One of the most influential coaches of the last twenty years.”
Matthews is proud of the way his club plays football. And coaching De Zerbi. “Don’t touch him, Chelsea!”
“The club’s style of play and progression has influenced the city and vice versa,” says Matthews. “Fans are a good mix of young, old, gay, straight, men, women, boys and girls and have great ethnic diversity.”
“The atmosphere at all football clubs in England has improved over the years for people who identify as LGBTI. “We still have a long way to go, but we are in a better position than we were ten years ago.”
Matthews will proudly take his place in the north stand when the last fans leave the stadium tonight. Knowing that De Zerbi or the last star will leave sooner or later but no one can take away Brighton’s identity.
Source: NOS
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
