A month-long of activities and celebrations will mark the anniversary of the Spanish LGBT multi-sports club GMadrid Sports, formed ten years ago to give visibility to LGBT athletes and fight against LGBT-phobia in sport.

One of the highlights will be the Fashanu Cup, a football tournament honouring the English football player Justin Fashanu, the world’s first openly gay footballer, who suffered years of abuse and eventually took his own life in 1998.

The tournament is being organised as part of the Football v Homophobia (FvH) Month of Action and will take place on 26 February at Caja Magica alongside GMadrid Sports’ paddle tennis tournament.

“Last year, we organised the Fashanu Cup for the first time to pay a tribute to Justin Fashanu and to further LGBT rights is sport.” said Aitor Bullón, GMadrid Sports Communications Manager.

“This year, we are very excited about our collaboration with Fare and FvH. It is the first time we participate in the campaign, but its goals are the same as ours. We believe that by improving the visibility of LGBT athletes we can improve acceptance and build a more diverse society, the Fashanu Cop is our contribute to that.” he added.

On 24 February the sports club will hold a party at Bearbie in Chueca, Madrid. The event will bring together LGBT athletes, gay-rights activities, NGOs and representatives of institutional bodies to celebrate the milestone.

“We want to invite everyone to our party and we want the LGBT community to feel that this is also their party: it is a celebration of what we have achieved over the last 10 years and a reminder of what we still have to fight for.” explained Sergio Sellers, Vice Presidente of GMadrid Sports.

To register for the tournaments please email 10aniversario@gmadridsports.com.