Football fans spot 'shameless' change to Jordan Henderson's Saudi announcement
Jordan Henderson's new club Al-Ettifaq have been slammed by football fans for greying out the England midfielder's rainbow armband in their signing announcement.
Henderson, 32, has completed a move from Liverpool to the Saudi outfit after more than a decade on Merseyside. His decision has attracted plenty of criticism from those arguing the country's stance on LGBT+ rights sits opposite his previous support for the community.
Al-Ettifaq, who are managed by Henderson's former Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard, announced the move with several shots of Henderson captaining the Reds, including a graphic reading 'captain who sets an example on every training session and every match'. However, the sleeve bearing the armband is greyed out in a number of images - including the rainbow armband worn to support the LGBT+ community.
"The club Hendo has signed for has so blatantly greywashed his previous support for LGBTIQ people," one fan wrote on social media. "Hope you're happy with the cash, skip."
"Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering why the shots of Henderson as captain of Liverpool had his armband clumsily cut as black & white," asked another. "Can't put my finger on the reason. Odd," they added, followed by a rainbow emoji.
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"Blacking out the armband on Henderson. No shame," wrote a third," while a number of others expressed similar emotions in response to the video.
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Al-Ettifaq greyed out Henderson's left arm in their announcement video (Twitter@https://twitter.com/Ettifaq_EN)
Henderson has worn the rainbow armband on multiple occasions (Getty Images)
On the eve of Henderson's move, LGBT+ Liverpool fans group Kop Outs made a late plea to attempt to talk the midfielder out of the switch. In doing so, they referred to a meeting between the England star and one of their members at the start of the 2021-22 season.
"When @JHenderson met Paul Amann of Kop Outs in August 2021, Jordan said if there's ever anything I can do to help, just ask," the group tweeted. "So the ask is to stand by your words as a professed ally & champion of #LGBT + rights, of women's rights and of basic human dignity. Don't go to Saudi."
Former Aston Villa star Thomas Hitzlsperger also raised questions. Hitzlsperger, who is gay, mentioned Henderson's prior comments while assessing the move.
Jordan Henderson has been reunited with Steven Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq (Twitter@https://twitter.com/Ettifaq_EN)"So Jordan Henderson finally gets his move to [Saudi Arabia]," the former Germany international said. "Fair play to him, he can play wherever he wants to play.
"Curious to know though how the new brand JH will look like. The old one is dead! I did believe for a while that his support for the [LGBT+] community would be genuine. Silly me…"
Henderson is understood to have accepted a contract worth £700,000 per week to move to Saudi Arabia. He is one of a number of former Premier League stars to make the move this summer, alongside the likes of N'Golo Kante, Ruben Neves and Edouard Mendy.
"It's hard to put these last 12 years into words and it's even harder to say goodbye," he wrote in a farewell message to Liverpool and the club's fans. "I will always be a Red. Until the day I die. Thank you for everything. You'll never walk alone."
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