'If you look..' Marc Guehi's father explains the reason for Guehi's controversial LGBTQ armband

The 24-year-old Crystal Palace and England defender made a bold statement by writing "I Love Jesus" on his armband before the Premier League match against Newcastle United on Saturday, November 30. Despite receiving a warning from the FA about the breach of their regulations against displaying religious symbols, Guehi—son of a minister and a vocal advocate of his Christian faith—decided to further assert his beliefs by writing "Jesus ❤️ You" on his armband for Crystal Palace’s match against Ipswich Town on Tuesday, December 2.

The rainbow-coloured armbands were distributed to all Premier League clubs as part of Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign, which aims to combat anti-LGBTQ+ hate in sports. This initiative has been beneficial in promoting positive attitudes among sports fans towards the LGBTQ+ community. The campaign is scheduled to run from 29 November to 5 December.

Guehi's controversial armband 

In this context, Geuhi's choice to write a Christian message on an armband intended to support LGBTQ+ inclusion may be considered a factor in any potential disciplinary action from the sporting body.

Over the weekend, Guehi boldly expressed his faith by writing “I Love Jesus” for the Crystal Palace-Newcastle game. In contrast, Ipswich Town captain Sam Morsy, representing Egypt, made a clear statement by choosing not to wear the rainbow armband due to his strong religious beliefs.

While Guehi has not publicly addressed his choice to write those phrases, he took to Instagram on Tuesday evening to assertively declare: “Jesus [loves] you. Stay blessed.”

“If you look at what the LGBT community are doing, they are trying to impose on others what they believe in, it’s belief against belief, but at the end of the day everyone has the right to an opinion.” Guehi's father added.

“He is talking about him, he loves Jesus and like I said he didn’t refuse to wear that armband, like Morsy, people should pay more attention to the person who refused to wear it,” John continued." he added.

“Marc said ‘Yes’ and did the right thing by wearing it but people are having a go at him for what he wrote, he accepted to wear the armband, he was just trying to balance the message." he added.

“He was saying’ You gave me the armband, as a Christian I don’t believe in your cause, but I will put it on’ but Morsy didn’t put it on because he said it was against his religion but more seems to be being said about Marc than him.”he concluded.