Proud Baggies Blog

To mark the seventh anniversary of Proud Baggies, we showcased the stories of seven of our members - looking at several newcomers who have joined through our establishment of Proud Baggies FC.

This article originally appeared in the match day programme on 2nd December 2023 for the men’s game WBA vs Leicester City dedicated to the Rainbow Laces campaign. In the vibrant and diverse world of football, certain clubs and initiatives shine as beacons of inclusivity and diversity, exemplifying the unity that the sport can foster within communities. Proud Baggies, championed by West Bromwich Albion Football Club, stands as a remarkable testament to the power of inclusivity, welcoming everyone regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or background into the footballing family. The Foundation of Proud Baggies Established in 2017, Proud Baggies was founded on clear principles to enhance the environment for WBA’s LGBTQ+ fans. Led by founder Piero Zizzi and Neil Basterfield, a dedicated group of volunteers runs the not-for-profit organization . Their considerable experience in sports marketing, human resources, and diversity and inclusion drives the organization's growth....

As we all took to our seats around the Hawthorns on November 6th for West Brom’s game against Hull City, players stood sombre as a piper sounded The Last Post. Silence fell across the usually noisy and raucous crowd as we stopped, together, to pay our respects in remembrance. I bowed my head slightly and in doing so, I noticed two women a few rows in front of me comforting each other. They were both really emotional. It touched me deeply as I realised that, in this big collective act of remembering, they were having an experience that was incredibly personal. I imagined a lost son at war, or a recently passed dad who had served. These two fans, feeling held and seen in their grief by their community. As the silence ended, the players took the knee. The ground broke out in applause. We got on with what we all pretend we’re all there for, and watched some football. I’d watched my first live football match in far too long back in May 2021. Successive lockdowns really taught us that there ...

Being a Proud Baggie Proud Baggie member Eve Ray reflects on her association with Proud Baggies after 2019's Birmingham Pride Parade. I suppose I should have been part of the LGBT scene rather longer than I have. I occasionally go to meetups of the Birmingham LGBT Meetup and have met some people I really like. But I never had time to go that often. Their main event is Coffee and Cake on a Saturday afternoon, and on Saturday afternoons I often have other things to do, like supporting West Bromwich Albion. And when I say that if I had the choice between going to a Baggies game and having lunch with Victoria Broom, I would mostly choose the match you will see where I am coming from on this one.It was last August that I read the winning entries in the annual competition run by When Saturday Comes for new writers. One of these was a really excellent piece about he LGBT Albion supporter’s group, the Proud Baggies. So I signed up. A few days later I met Sarah Robinson, the author of...

This weekend sees the launch of the 6 th annual Stonewall ‘Rainbow Laces’ campaign, a campaign to show support for LGBT+ equality and inclusivity in sport. Players and fans across the country will be wearing a pair of rainbow laces in their football or rugby boots, cricket shoes, athletics spikes and whatever else they are wearing. We will also see football stadia decked out with rainbow corner flags, decorated substitution boards, & captains wearing rainbow armbands. LGBT+ football supporter groups are growing quickly; nearly every other club in the Football League has one (44 currently), and the Premier League and the EFL embrace ‘Rainbow Laces’ every year, yet many fans are questioning the need for such activity. So, why do we need a Rainbow Laces campaign? Unfortunately, homophobic language (often dismissed as banter) is still common in football grounds. The fact that there are no openly gay players suggests that the football environment is not conducive to being o...

After returning from the World Cup, David Price looks back on his love affair with the world's largest country... My recent trip to Russia for the World Cup was every bit as good as I hoped it would be. My interest in football and in the country of Russia both go back to the sixties, when I was a child, when the Cold War was at its height and when LBJ was President of the United States (what is the relevance of him to this blog, you may ask, well just look up to see during his Presidency which was the last country to win the World Cup and which was the last club to win the FA Cup). I am the fourth generation of West Bromwich Albion fans in our family, my nephew is the fifth. My grandfather took me to my first match in 1970 and took me regularly thereafter, just two years after that famous FA Cup triumph. My great grandfather was 13 when the club was formed in 1878 and started watching and supporting the club from very early in its existence, so my family do truly go back al...