World famous soccer team FC Barcelona have received backlash for LGBTQ+ imagery behind the club emblem on social media to recognize international Pride Day.
The Catalan club announced their support of Pride Day on June 28 with posts on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Barcelona already have a large following on Twitter, but 41.4 million people around the world have seen a club tweet featuring the trans and rainbow flags, with thousands reacting to it.
"We're flying the rainbow flag to celebrate LGTBQI+ Pride Day #Pride2023," the club wrote across social media, including images of Pride flags at their stadium, the Spotify Camp Nou.
Among the 60,000 people who commented or retweeted the images, a significant number criticized the club's action.
"You have Muslim fans like us and you decided to post this on EID? That's very low," @AbjaFCB wrote on Twitter, referencing the fact that in a lot of Muslim countries, homosexuality and other acts are illegal. The tweet got more than 10,200 likes.
"Barca had all of June to do this yet they chose to post it on the day of Eid. [Not gonna lie] that's extremely disrespectful," wrote @laligafrauds.
Another user said: "Waiting just to post it on Eid. Disgusting club."
@Sarky_sultan said he will "never support Barcelona again."
Another user, @NekreSale, went as far as to post a screenshot of an email he sent to Barcelona, officially resigning from supporting the club.