Football has been at the forefront of homophobic issues on various occasions recently. Last week the rainbow flag was used again as a colourful symbol to represent the views of the gay rights movement.

Clare B Dimyon, who has received an MBE for her campaigning, took her flag-waving protestations to Wembley last week. She chose the England v Holland friendly to try to win people over to considering gay issues, by waving the rainbow flag. These flags have become popular at marches and festivals in support of gay activists’ publicity. Clare, who is the founder of the Pride Solidarity Group, used the occasion at Wembley Stadium to encourage the many families at the match to discuss gay issues and show their support. As she has Dutch grandchildren, she also contacted the organisation Homosport, in Holland, to help to publicise her gay rights demo and to back the efforts being made across Europe to tackle the problem.

The Football Association has been taking advice from organisations like the Gay Football Supporters Network, Kick it Out, Pride Sports and Stonewall, and have now launched their own anti-homophobia campaign, so they have every sympathy with Clare’s efforts.

Clare herself seems to have had great fun at the event, claiming that her chanting was attracting more attention than a nearby Christian preacher who was using a megaphone.

Loyal Sunderland Football Club supporters have unveiled an enormous flag for crowd surfing at the team’s local derby game against Newcastle last weekend.

Measuring 15 metres by 9 metres, the large red and white flag was created by the supports’ group Ha’way the Flags, which is tasked with maintaining Sunderland’s team colours in the stands at both home and away games.

Unveiled to the supporters at the Stadium of Light before the 1-1 draw against Newcastle, their arch rivals, it will not be crowd surfed until their game against Chelsea on 1st February.

The £3,000 to create the flag was raised by the supporters’ group in just a matter of weeks, after the group was only officially being created in December. A group of fans decided that not enough was being done to maintain the stadium’s use of the team colours, and so raised support and money between all the fans.

Martyn McFadden, one of the Ha’way the Flags leaders, said:

We couldn’t believe how quickly it took off but people are passionate about these things and want to get involved. We’ve been overwhelmed by the support that we’ve received. We hope it forms links between fans and the club, which I think is important and hopefully it will bring people together.

Flags from cricket clubs all throughout the UK could be picked out in the British supporters crowd that gathered in Adelaide to watch England’s cricket team destroy the Australian team and cruise to victory in the second Ashes test.

Both Australian fans and English fans travelling abroad will be carrying local cricket flags as a sign of support to their club whilst the two teams will engage in a fiercely contested competition.

Simon Tremlin, club committee member at Oxfordshire’s Aston Rowant Cricket Club took the club’s flag to the tournament. Tremlin, one of England’s die-hard supporters travels to nearly all of their away matches.

Gary Condon, the club’s chairman, said it was very satisfying to see the club’s support demonstrated so widely by Mr Tremlin, who is also the club’s groundsman.

He’s very lucky with the work he does. He works all the hours God sends during the summer, but in the winter he doesn’t have a lot to do. He goes to every England away game and went everyday on their last Ashes Tour [which Australia won 5-0].

Another well-recognised flag at the games was that of the Isle of Man, which was carried by staunch fan Boris Kitching. Mr Kitching is known as the course marshall at the island’s renowned Southern 100 Club races, but is also known for his devotion to his local club and national cricket.

Singapore Swimming Team

The skimpy trunks worn by the male team’s water polo team at the Asian Games which depict the Singaporean flag has been rebuked by the nation’s government.

The swimming shorts, featuring the flag‘s colours red and white – which has been condemned by the Singapore’s Straits Times readers as “disgusting”, “disgraceful” and “nauseating” – has been said to violate the appropriate usage rules of the flag, according to the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts (MICA).

One MICA official said that the swimming trunks – which illustrate the flag‘s white crescent and stars on their limited area – did not gain the approval of the ministry, and would not have if they had been shown them beforehand. He said:

We would have told them that their design is inappropriate, as we want elements of the flag to be treated with dignity.

The swimming team is unable to do anything about the current situation, short of dropping out of the competition. The public representative of the team, Jose Raymond, said they were sorry for causing office, but explained:

The competition rules state that the trunks must be presented at that start of competition and they must be used throughout the tournament. The team can’t use other trunks.

Singapore will play a Kuwait team competing under the banner of the International Olympic Committee in a battle for fifth place on Thursday at Guangzhou’s Tianhe Natatorium.