I was approached by Paddy Power in August after my participation in the BBC Three documentary 'Britain's Gay Footballers' that Amal Fashanu did last year.

The reason for me doing both the documentary and this campaign was that I felt it was important for a modern day footballer, with some measure of influence, to speak about something that has been deemed a taboo topic.

It's quite crazy, when you think about it, that in the 21st century, this is something that needs to be addressed but there are still many people out there with closed minds.

A lot of institutions and other sports are quite liberal and forward thinking but, for some strange reason, football has never adequately broached the topic of sexuality. It speaks out about racism and uses the power it has as a sport to do some great charity work, but it's never really managed to address homophobia in football.

My initial thoughts on the concept they presented to me was how simple it was – on a weekend in September every professional footballer in the UK would receive rainbow coloured football laces through their club. By wearing them players could stand together and show that sexuality in sport doesn't matter which would take a big step towards not only kicking homophobia out of football but also pave the way for a more tolerant environment where in the future all players would feel like they could be open about their sexuality.

I had a couple of meetings with Paddy Power about potential hurdles for the campaign and I was hopefully able to provide the player perspective for them, what the reaction would be in the dressing room, for example. To accompany the laces being sent out they worked with Stonewall to produce a media campaign that would bring attention to the issue and put the focus on clubs and players getting behind the initiative.

This included a big drive on Twitter, a medium I'm a fan of, and some adverts designed to provoke discussion. I think ahead of the week I wasn't 100% convinced how football would react. I spoke to a few of my team mates in advance and they said they'd be happy to wear them but I also knew some lads wouldn't wear them – whether that was because they were superstitious or because they were worried about fan reaction.

To try and overcome some of these issues I actually wore the laces on pitch the weekend before to try and take away any concerns. When the laces actually landed with clubs on the Friday before and then the media campaign kicked off on the Monday I was astounded by the reaction. I announced my backing for rainbow laces at the very beginning of the week and was flooded with messages of support for the idea; I also had a lot of requests for laces!

As the week went on it was brilliant to see so many football fans getting behind it. One of the reasons I liked the campaign was that players could support it by simply wearing the laces but fans could also very easily get involved, whether that was by using the hashtag #RBGF on Twitter or by lacing up themselves.

The reaction from some clubs was pretty disappointing, blaming commercial conflicts on not being able to get involved and hiding behind meaningless statements from the leagues. All they had to do was give players the choice to support the campaign, the laces weren't branded and boot manufacturers like adidas were happy for players to wear them so I think it was a poor excuse. I was proud of my club QPR who showed their support and proud of my fellow professionals – players from 54 professional teams laced up and provided a great platform to build from.

However, the most important part of the campaign for me was the potential future impact on fans and grassroots football. You look at the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi, whether it's the boots they wear, the haircuts they have, and you see the influence top flight footballers have over football fans – in particular young fans.

Players putting rainbow laces in their boots that weekend and the issue dominating the news agenda has provided a positive example and with more work like this we'll see a knock on effect to the next generation – hopefully they'll never have to experience homophobia in any aspect of life.

Joey Barton is a professional footballer and supporter of Stonewall and Paddy Power's rainbow laces campaign.



Click here to read why Stonewall partnered with Paddy Power and Joey Barton.

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