|
LIVERPOOL
FOOTBALL CLUB BECOMES FIRST PREMIER LEAGUE CLUB TO MARCH IN UK PRIDE
FESTIVAL
LIVERPOOL Football Club
has announced that it is making a stand to kick homophobia out of
football, as it becomes the first Premier League club to be
officially represented at a UK LGBT Pride event. The club will show
its support at Liverpool Pride on Saturday, 4 August 2012.
LFC will provide a banner featuring the club crest with LFC staff
and LFC Ladies FC (the Liverpool Football Club women's team)
marching together with LFC LGBT and other supporters at Liverpool
Pride. LFC will also have a stall at the market place on the day at
the festival's Pier Head site and will provide signed merchandise
for fundraising auctions.
LFC has already worked with Liverpool Pride on the 'Football v
Homophobia' tournament, which was hosted at the club's Academy
for the first time earlier this year. LFC also supports the Justin
Campaign, a national campaign aiming to challenge LGBT
misconceptions and strive towards a future where everyone is
accepted within all levels of football.
LFC supporters, whether they be LGBT or not, are welcome to join
theclub's representatives behind the LFC banner on the Liverpool
Pride March. The March musters at William Brown Street from 11am,
setting off at midday. Theclub is registered in the March and
Liverpool Pride Stewards will be able to direct those who wish to
join behind the banner to the right part of the muster.
Liverpool Pride would be delighted for other football clubs and
their supporters to March, whether they are from professional or pub
league clubs. Supporters not wishing to behind an LFC banner are
welcome to register as a separate club and bring their banners
along. Go to:-
liverpoolpride.co.uk/march
to register.
Ian Ayre Managing Director at
Liverpool Football Club said:- "Here at LFC, we continue to
demonstrate our commitment to ensuring that equality and principles
of inclusion are embedded into all areas of Liverpool Football Club
and for many years, we have taken positive steps to promote our
stance against homophobia both on and off the pitch. I am
delighted to confirm that some Club employees and members from the
Liverpool Ladies squad will be participating in the event on 4
August. The event is certainly a positive talking point around
Liverpool and it's an excellent platform to attract local
communities and people from across the country to experience the
diverse culture of our fantastic city. We wish you every success for
the Liverpool Pride "Nautical but Nice" event and we are
delighted to provide you with the support of Liverpool Football
Club."
Zoran Blackie Chair of Liverpool Pride said:- "Liverpool
Football Club have been going through huge changes, and one of them
is to work closely with all their supporters – and they've showed
that before by hosting our Football Vs Homophobia tournament. Now by
standing alongside us for the march, LFC are showing the LGBT
community in the city that 'we'll never walk alone"
Paul Amann LGBT Supporters' Committee Representative said:-
"As the LFC LGBT Supporters' Committee Representative and a founding
trustee of Liverpool Pride, I am particularlyproud of my club for
being the first major club to ever support a Pride event. The
response of fellow fans has been amazing and whether they are gay or
straight many are joining Liverpool Pride's march in solidarity and
celebration of the city's LGBT community."
Liverpool Pride is the UK's biggest FREE Gay Pride festival outside
of London. In just 2 years, Liverpool Pride has established itself
as one of the major highlights in the city and the wider LGB&T
community's summer calendar. Bursting onto the scene in 2010, the
inaugural Liverpool Pride festival attracted over 20,000people,
which was doubled to over 44,000 in 2011.
The festival came about following the launch of the LGB&T Network,
at which the public voted for a Pride festival to engage, empower
and involve the LGB&T communities within the city. This was fully
endorsed by Liverpool City Council in January 2009. Following a
number of high profile attacks in the city, the event was
established in 2010 and now takes place each year to coincide with
the anniversary of murdered gay teenager Michael Causer.
Liverpool Pride 2012 will take place at Liverpool's iconic pier-head
and throughout the Stanley Street Quarter. In addition to this,
there will be a weekend of cultural events taking place at some of
Liverpool's most influential arts and cultural establishments. The
festival's 'Nautical but Nice' theme, chosen in a ballot by
700 members of the local LGBT community, gives a nod to the city's
commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the
Titanic, whilst at the same time, celebrating the city's rich
maritime history and taking advantage of the main festival site,
which sits on the banks of the River Mersey.
Make sure you check out
liverpoolpride.co.uk, @LiverpoolPride on
Twitter and search Liverpool Pride on Facebook to have your say and
for all of the latest pride news.
Letters to Editor:- "Metric
units?" "IT
seems that we are currently in receipt of record amounts of rain.
Whilst it has certainly been somewhat moist of recent weeks, I have
been unable to compare precipitation levels with previous years due
to the media's fetish for using only metric units. Perhaps you would
care to more fully inform your readers by converting to inches in
future reports? It is claimed that many younger people may not be
able to understand these; but they can easily learn." John
Eoin Douglas.
|
 |
WISHING BRITISH
GROOMS A BELLY SPECIAL WEDDING DAY
36% of North West married
men would remove their beer belly in their wedding day photos if
they could rewind and have the day all over again, according to a
survey carried out by sports nutrition company Multipower Sportsfood.
With the British wedding season upon us the survey polled 1,000
married British men about how they felt about their bodies on their
wedding day and what they would most want to improve. A further 15%
of married males in the North West would have removed their double
chins before the big day and 14% lost their fat cheeks.
There is still time for grooms to get in shape for their big day
this year and Multipower Sportsfood ambassador Ben Foden, who
married pop star Una Healy last week, has put together a series of
easy to follow training and nutrition tips to help spare Brits
wedding photo blushes.
England and Northampton Saints full back Foden says:- "Getting
started and into a routine is half the battle but with your wedding
as the motivation it should make things easier. It is important to
sit down in advance to plan out your training schedule and a
healthier balanced diet. If you can add a training partner into the
mix to help motivate you and keep you focussed then you'll be well
on your way to losing the pounds for the big day."
Nationwide, 73% of married men wished they had lost an average of
6lbs in weight before they said 'I do', with 27% targeting
their beer bellies as the worst feature. The latest wedding
statistics show that 277,736 marriages took place in the UK in 2010
which would mean a whopping 1.2 million lbs or 87,000 stone of extra
baggage heading off on honeymoon around the world that year.
While the figures don't paint a good picture of the average British
groom the survey did confirm that many had good intentions, 19%
planned to lose weight before the wedding but failed to keep it up
and 11% of British men were sparked into losing weight after seeing
their wedding photos. The survey shows that married men from
the South East are the most content with their physical appearance
on their wedding day with 53% not wanting to change anything
compared to just 14% of husbands from the East Midlands.
It's no surprise then that 25% of married men from the East Midlands
revealed they were embarrassed by their beach body, more than
anywhere else in the country, but they are doing something about it
with nearly 23% kick starting a weight loss programme after the
arrival of their wedding snaps.
Ben Foden's Top 5 Training tips:-
1. Plan ahead
It sounds simple, and it is. But it's also easy to overlook and you
really won't progress if you haven't got a training plan in place.
So make a diary or a schedule, write down your sessions and monitor
your progress. Looking back at previous efforts will also help
motivate you to go one better.
2. Try circuit training
Circuit training allows you to pack more work into your time by
letting specific muscle groups rest as you work others. It is
especially good if your hectic lifestyle restricts your gym hours.
My favourite circuit for an all-round body workout includes sit ups,
squat jumps, skipping and medicine ball chest pass. Try each for 1
minute and then rest.
3. Focus on multi-joint exercises
These are what we call 'compound exercises' and train the
most muscle fibres at once. They are the core exercises in my
workout schedule and the one I do regularly is the squat. This
exercise works the knee, hip and ankle, as well as the muscles of
the upper and lower legs.
4. Build muscle
It's not only cardio work that will help you lose fat. Building
muscles burns a lot more calories from body fat every day and the
more muscle you have, the more calories you can lock away.
5. Keep it varied
Using a variety of exercises helps keep training interesting and
also forces the body and muscles to adapt. With weight training,
think dumbbell press and then barbell press. With cardio, think
short sprints and then longer jogs.
Ben Foden's Top 5 Nutrition tips
1. Concentrate on diet first
Diet is 70% to 80% of the picture with weight loss. Training might be
more interesting but focus on what you're eating for breakfast,
lunch and dinner, and you'll see results faster. But avoid an
extreme diet. In practise they are hard to stick to and many of them
are a very bad choice for your health. Just make changes that you
can maintain.
2. Take carbohydrates around training
The body stores the energy from excess carbs by converting it into
fat. But, carbs eaten around training are locked away in the muscles
meaning you avoid the fat but keep the energy benefits.
3. But not ALL the time
Carbs are a great fuel but we tend to over eat them. Try swapping
some of that starch for fibrous vegetables, like green beans or
spinach. You still get enough carbs but also more vitamins, minerals
and fibre.
4. Get your fish oils
When I'm eating out I'll often order oily fish or chicken. You'll
hear a lot about Omega 3, the reason being is that it has been
proven to help with fat loss and it is in its most active form in
fish oils. Chicken is a source of protein, vitamins and minerals.
5. Avoid liquid calories
The body is very bad at monitoring calories consumed in liquid form,
they don't fill us up and they're often just the type of calories
that do the most damage. Swap your pint of beer or wine glass for a
bottle of water, I carry one with me at most times and sip regularly
during the day. Challenge yourself to drink 1.5 litres a day |
