Rita Panahi: It is hard to imagine moral posturing that is more contradictory and meaningless

Collingwood, Sydney and other teams’ divisive political posturing becomes vacuous when their actions do not match their words.

Sporting teams that want to engage in incoherent, empty virtue signalling on a range of social and political issues must stop treating their fans with utter disdain.

It’s one thing to take a stand on a value that is universally celebrated but quite another to involve your club in contentious, divisive political posturing.

And that posturing becomes vacuous when your actions do not match your words as the Swans and Pies, among others, demonstrated last week during International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT).

On yet another day devoted to the LGBTIQA+ community – we’ve already had LGBTQ pride month, Transgender Day of Remembrance, Intersex Awareness Day, International Pronoun Day, International Transgender Day of Visibility, Non-Binary Awareness Week, Asexual Awareness Week and more – we saw sporting clubs fall over themselves to show they valued “inclusivity”.

Sporting teams must stop treating their fans with utter disdain. Picture. Phil Hillyard

Collingwood was eager to trumpet its acknowledgment of the day and “efforts to alleviate LGBTIQA+ discrimination”. The club posted images of players wearing rainbow armbands at training to recognise IDAHOBIT Day but there was just one small problem: prominently displayed on the Pies’ jumper was the Emirates logo.

It appears Collingwood feels so strongly about LGBTIQA+ rights that it proudly wears the logo of a state-owned airline of a country where homosexuality is a crime.

Hard to imagine moral posturing that is more contradictory and meaningless.

And the Swans, who have taken part in an annual Pride Game against St Kilda since 2016, were no better. They trumpeted their activism: “LGBTIQA+ Pride is one of the key pillars on the club’s Diversity Action Plan.”

Clubs are falling over themselves to show they value ‘inclusivity’. Picture: Getty

But while Sydney preaches LGBTIQA+ inclusivity, it opts to have Qatar Airways as its official airline partner. Qatar being the state-owned airline of a country where homosexuality is a crime punishable by jail, or in some cases death.

But have we seen a campaign from Swans players to ditch their premium sponsor? Have we seen the players take a knee for the plight of those facing systematic discrimination and brutality in Qatar where openly gay men and women face terrible abuse including canings and jail?

Of course not, the thing about cheap activism is that those taking part never have to pay a price.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist