Remaining in football after ‘coming out’ can cause real problems for players these days; players are finding it increasingly difficult to declare their sexuality with fears of how their fellow team-mates will react.
Too it is likely that some players feel seemingly pressurized by individual clubs who prevent players from announcing their homosexuality because of their ever-increasing commercial market value which they believe could be damaged.
Homosexuality, in England especially, has been largely liberal in its attitudes since it was legalised in 1967. In other occupations, men who are politicians and comedians, are openly gay and receive very minimal amounts of criticism; however the footballing world has very few openly homosexual men and it is a rarity that a player will reveal that they are gay during their career.
In 2008 ex-Premier League footballer Paul Elliot estimated that at least twelve Premier League footballers were gay but were too afraid of the reaction they would receive to ‘come out’. However in 2009 when fans were surveyed, the majority said that there wasn’t enough being done by the FA to prevent homophobia in football and that they would be comfortable to see a player from their team publicly announce that they were gay.
Over the years only three footballers have publicly had the bravery to announce their homosexuality; most recently being Robbie Rogers, 25, formerly of Leeds United and previously of Columbus Crew.
Robbie left his career in football behind after a loan spell at Stevenage in February of this year. He described coming out in football as ‘impossible’ and he told the media of how he was ‘fearful’ of how his team-mates would take it (especially should he have still been with Leeds United).
The fear he had may have been because of a similar situation that happened in 1990; where former England Under-21 International Justin Fashanu stated his homosexuality publicly (being the first British footballer to do so); but eight years later took his life after doing so, aged 37 and it is suspected (but unknown) that it was because of prejudice comments from the people around him, combined with the hassle caused by an alleged sexual assault charge from a seventeen-year-old boy.
For a footballer to announce their homosexuality must be terrifying, because not only could you face the judgement from those you work and play with on a day-to-day basis but also the tremendous amount of media attention that a player would receive and especially the potential problems caused by opposition fans- the likelihood for abuse to be shouted at a player because they are openly gay is a lot higher than a player who is not or one who has no distinctive characteristics.
But how long will it be until footballers can ‘come out’ without the fear of what other people think and the concern of not being accepted?
It is suggested that in the near future players should and will have more confidence in stating their sexuality so that others will follow and feel more comfortable in doing so.
Do you think homosexuality is a problem in football? How can it be addressed?
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“o you think homosexuality is a problem in football?”
No. But homophobia is a problem in football.