Man United boss supports player’s decision to drop rainbow jackets after Mazraoui’s reluctance to wear it on religious grounds.
Man United boss Ruben Amorim has backed his players’ decision to not wear the rainbow jackets for the Everton game.
Reports emerged that the Red Devils were supposed to wear specially-prepared rainbow jackets as part of the LGBTQ+ campaign. However, Mazraoui refused to wear the jacket citing his religious beliefs as a reason.
The move resulted in criticism from the Rainbow Devils, the club’s LGBTQ+ supporters’ group, which said the decision was a “great disappointment”.
“It was a group decision as players, as it should be,” Amorim said. “There are three difficult things to manage. On one side it’s club values and I think all can agree that it’s not an issue but then you have religion, which you have to respect. It’s our values to respect other opinions. And then the third thing is the group thing.
“I won’t leave Nous alone – we’re a team. The majority of the players believe in one thing but they saw one guy alone and said: ‘Let’s be together.’ It’s three things we have to manage and respect. It’s a hard issue to address. I think we did it in a good way. This club represents … we need to respect everything but we also respect the religion of Nous and his culture.”
Amorim will have to upset Nottingham Forest on Saturday night in order to make it three Old Trafford victories in a row after suffering his first loss on Wednesday against Arsenal. The fact that Forest leads United, who begin the weekend in 13th place, by three points and six spots shows how much work Amorim has ahead of him.
“We’re a massive club but we’re not a massive team and we know it, so it is no problem to say it,” Amorim said. “We want to improve – we are in a different moment from Arsenal. But you could feel it during the game. I think we have to believe more. We weren’t dominant in the game but we had control. Not so many chances for Arsenal, of course a lot of set pieces, but we were OK, especially in the first half.
“You could feel that there’s so much to do. We need to be better in the final third – they had more danger. I felt Arsenal had problems to block our buildup, but then when they defended the goal it was quite comfortable for them, so we are learning and trying to improve.”