The Premier League’s phenomenal global reach is a major contributing factor to the impact of Rainbow Laces. It’s difficult to quantify exactly how many people the LGBTQ+ inclusion campaign reaches worldwide but we do know the league itself is one of the UK’s most successful exports with an estimated TV audience in the billions. Having two match rounds dedicated to Rainbow Laces, with all 20 clubs activating the initiative, provides a visibility prominence that is surely unrivalled in sports. Add in the awareness generated through social media, and the capacity to spark conversations that can hope to reduce homophobia, biphobia and transphobia is enormous. To get an idea of the influence, the Premier League has 183.5m followers across its Instagram, X, Facebook and TikTok channels, compared to the NFL’s combined following of 94.4m (interestingly, the NBA tops them both with 197.1m).