Stand Up Speak Up

Stand Up Speak Up was a Europe-wide campaign that was launched in January 2005 by the French Football player Thierry Henry following an increase in reports of racist incidents in football across Europe. The campaign started when the former Spanish footballer (soccer player) Luis Aragonés, at this time coach of a Spanish national team, said these words towards his player and Henry's teammate, José Antonio Reyes: "You will show this black shi* (Thierry Henry) that you´re better than him". It led to Nike creating the "Stand up speak up" campaign. Together with Nike and other top European players like Rio Ferdinand, Carles Puyol and so on, he protests against this continuing problem inviting football fans to voice their opposition to racism.

Not to be confused with the UK Conservative Party's "Stand Up Speak Up" platform.
Stand Up Speak Up wristband

The symbol of the campaign is two interlocked wristbands, one black, and one white. About 5 million of these wristbands have been sold all over Europe. The wrist bands are no longer being sold and there is no intention to reproduce them, but they are still available on the internet. All the funds raised are passed on to a central Stand Up Speak Up fund that will look to support initiatives that aim to combat racism in football through a variety of programmes and initiatives. This successful campaign included footballers such as Thierry Henry, Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo and Adriano. Stand up Speak claimed at the end in 2009 more than 6.5 million US dollars and spent them to 238 projects.

Controversy sparked when Gary Neville claimed Nike was only involved for commercial gain and not their anti-racism stance. This carried over into a match against Arsenal as Neville and Manchester United team mate Paul Scholes refused to wear the different anti racism tracksuit top that players from both sides wore.

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