When the Director of Pride Solidarity, Clare B
Dimyon MBE, first visited the Za Ravnie Pravo lesbian
football team, hidden away in Ukraine, she described it as being
"in the middle of a mass of dilapidated tenement blocks, crumbling
as only Soviet concrete can".
Despite this, and the fact that local schools won't allow them
to hire out their gyms in the winter, leaving it nearly impossible
to practise, their talent was discernible. They proved this by
thrashing a group of male footballers 11 - 4. But what was also
obvious was the team's determination and courage to do well, which
had resulted in them securing a place to play in an international
women's tournament in Kyiv last month. However, the fact that they
didn't have a proper kit to play in was causing the whole team
embarrassment.
Since the price of a football kit for the team would only come
to around £250 in British terms, Clare contacted Lou Englefield of
LGBT sports development organisation Pride
Sports and enquired as to whether they could help them out at
all, perhaps with some second-hand kits. Pride Sports went one
better and funded the entire £250 needed to buy the team their own
purple football kit.
The team are pictured (right) in their new kit, with LGBT human
rights campaigner Clare.
Krystyna of said: "We are delighted, we were always proud of the
skill of our team but in the football finals in Kyiv, our team
really made a great impression and we came second! And this
purple is brilliant, you could see the other teams in blue and
green were rather envious, we were so proud to stand out from the
crowd."
