Food for footy thought...

Good article. But posted under "adult swinger dating". Gonna guess the site doesn't have clear queer friendly tags...

News - Why are there no openly gay footballers?

Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse has vowed not to kiss his team-mates after scoring a goal for fear of being thought of as gay. As football authorities make tackling homophobia a priority, why are there no openly homosexual players?

Figures from politics and showbiz come out and few people bat an eyelid, but the most popular sports remain a bastion for casual sex dating movie
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The decision of any well-known players in football, rugby or cricket to come out is no-one else’s to make, but the football authorities have acknowledged the working environment could be a barrier to them being honest.

The Football Association held its first “homophobia summit” this week to launch a strategy aimed at dealing with anti-gay abuse regularly heard on the terraces and occasionally on the pitch. A Hull City supporter was recently convicted and fined after taunting Brighton fans.

I’ve had players over the years who were single and read books and so others said they must be gay Alan Smith Former football manager

But Cisse’s comments, which were probably meant as light-hearted fun, suggest there is some way to go before gay players feel sufficiently comfortable to come out.

Among 4,000 professional footballers, it would be impossible for some not to be gay, says Alan Smith, who managed Crystal Palace and Wycombe Wanderers. He thinks there are probably fewer than in the rest of society because the potential abuse would put young gay men off pursuing football as a career.

“Football is a profession that doesn’t allow anyone to be different,” he says. “I’ve had players over the years who were single and read books and so others said they must be gay.

“I suspect it may have bothered them but they got on with it because that’s what they wanted to do.

“I think being openly gay would be something very difficult to live with in football.”

WHO, WHAT, WHY? A regular feature in the BBC News Magazine - aiming to answer some of the questions behind the headlines Ask a question

Players are crude about it, he says, with comments like “shirt-lifter” commonly made as a way to fit into a macho culture.

“You can get drunk and beat up your wife and that’s quite acceptable, but if someone were to say ‘I’m gay’, it’s considered awful. It’s ridiculous.”

Former Ireland international Tony Cascarino says coming out could end a player’s career and his life would be a misery, and the experience of the UK’s only openly gay player to date backs up that claim.

Justin Fashanu, who played for Norwich, Nottingham Forest and Hearts, endured abuse after coming out in 1990. After his suicide eight years later, the coroner said the prejudices he experienced, plus the sexual assault charge he was facing at the time of his death, probably overwhelmed him.

Cover-up

Maybe it’s no surprise to hear that gay players apparently go to great lengths to try to hide their sexuality. PR guru Max Clifford has claimed he was approached twice by major clubs to help make players present a “straight” image.

Fashanu was the first black 1m footballer

But players lower down the leagues face greater abuse, says Richard Columbell of the Gay Football Supporters Network, because the corporate atmosphere of the Premiership makes it more politically-correct.

What the FA is doing is a start, he says, but the clubs must follow their lead.

“I think football managers need to say it doesn’t matter and clubs need to say it will be tackled in the same way as racist or sexist language.

“You can’t change what people think but you can change what they are allowed to do.”

If you ask the traditional footballer supporter or anyone involved they will say footballers are not gay Martin Perry Chief executive Brighton and Hove Albion Managers decline debate

Despite the FA’s stated aims, the issue appears taboo among managers. When BBC Radio Five Live wrote to the 20 Premier League managers with three questions about homophobia, all 20 refused to answer.

It seems the UK may be waiting a few more years before players emerge from the “closet”, but there is a precedent to be found in Australia.

Ian Roberts, who played one of the world’s toughest sports, rugby league, came out in 1994, six years before he retired. The reaction, he says, was generally positive.

Fuck you, Gerlado

This homophobe just said the magic words to get me off the fence:

9/11 truth protesters with WeAreChange & Alex Jones--gathered in NYC for a week of street actions and 9/11 responders benefit events--waved signs, chanting "9/11 Was an Inside Job" behind a live FOX News broadcast featuring a flustered and angry Geraldo Rivera. At one point Rivera says, as he introduces a segment on Larry Craig, "I think these demonstrators are all into restroom gay sex--ha ha ha."

Fuck you, Geraldo and fuck you again. Homophobia is alive and well, we knew that? But know what you did? You made it personal with every "closet" gay Truther. That's a crowded cupboard.

No more "closets". 9/11 IS an inside job. And everyone knows it. Have the balls to admit it. 9/11, 7/7, Bali... this is the same shit that happened in Northern Ireland. MI6 fucking it up to make the Irish look bad so British business could make money. Ask why there have been no other attacks on America? If the Yankees can't fund their war how can they be finding "Homeland Security" to stop "terrorists"?

They're not! The English and Americans are in it together! All to make money! God damn it its so obvious!

And for the love of fucking saints don't go the other way and listen to the shills talking about noplanes, and mininukes and space beam crap! Wake up! That's all CIA crap!

Visit these sites for 911 information:

911 Truth.org

911Blogger.com

911Visibility

Visibility 911

OK. Rant over.

David James on gay footballers

David James on gay footballers

April 16th, 2007 · 4 Comments

People often wonder why I love sport so much, especially football of all codes. My one true love though is football of the round-ball variety and it’s not just because I love the game. It seems to have the ability through it’s sheer popularity and deep history, among other things, to offer up moments that just make me smile, like when Barcelona PAID UNICEF for the honour of wearing their name on the Barca shirt. (Barca had never had a shirt sponsor previously).

Today there’s a little item in The Guardian written by David James, currently a keeper for Portsmouth. Even though he used to drive me crazy with his ‘Calamity James’ antics when he played for Liverpool, he has always struck me as someone with half a brain, which sometimes seems like a rare commodity for a footballer. In his item he addresses the last great taboo of English football - the gay player. He points to the hypocrisy of some of the players, the nastiness of gossip and the media and wonders when and in what environment will a player finally be able to come out and be allowed to continue to play football, not suffer the same fate as the only player to have come out, Justin Fashanu.

Its Not Funny

This makes me want to give it up...Footy, the lot:

Gay Aussie rules players - are you out there?

May 23, 2004

Eddie McGuire with gay radio presenter and comic Adam Richard on the cover of QMagazine.
Picture:Supplied

Despite support, any gay footballers are keeping quiet. Jason Dowling asks why.

When big-hitting rugby league prop forward Ian Roberts came out in 1995 and told the world he was gay, many thought the final closet had opened.

The blokey, tough world of rugby league was forced to accept that players not only came from different socioeconomic, ethnic and religious backgrounds, but that not all shared the same sexual preference.

But as history has proved across sport, it is not easy to be a gay sports star - especially if you're a man.

Few famous sporting men have outed themselves - in Australian Rules Football there have been none.

Most statistics point to between 5 and 10 per cent of the population being gay: Australian Rules Football is more than 100 years old and with about 680 contracted AFL players this year, the numbers suggests not everyone's being honest.

Why has there never been an openly gay Australian Rules footballer?

"That's a really really good question," St Kilda life member Ian "Molly" Meldrum said last week. Maybe, Molly said, "when sportsmen reach an elite level they realise it is easier to fit in and succeed if you are not different, so they just keep it to themselves".

Coburg Football Club president Phil Cleary said he played against a very tough and skilled footballer at a senior level of Australian Rules who was gay. Mr Clearly said the man remained unwilling to talk about the issue because he did not want to be remembered as "the gay footballer".

The former player, Cleary said, never came forward during his career because "there was nothing to be gained from coming out". Cleary said there was still little incentive in the macho football culture to encourage this.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire suggested it was easier for people in areas such as the arts and the media to express their individuality rather than those in "hierarchical organisations like the army and footy clubs".

McGuire appears on the front cover of this month's issue of glossy gay monthly QMagazine and is quoted as saying he would be "rapt" if Collingwood was the first club to have an openly gay player. "I think, whereas once upon a time this would become a major issue, now it would be, 'Oh yeah? Good. Next'," he said.

McGuire said he could not speak for other clubs on their attitude towards gay footballers but added he was prepared to give Richmond the benefit of the doubt over its decision not to allow star recruit Nathan Brown play a gay doctor on The Footy Show.

"I am prepared to back the Tigers that it wasn't homophobic, although it appeared at the time that it was," McGuire said.

Carlton president Ian Collins told The Sunday Age that Carlton would have no problems drafting a gay player or if one of their players declared he was homosexual.

Despite the support, no one has come out - at any level of the game.

Richard Watts, head of Collingwood's gay supporter group the Pink Magpies, suggested there remained "a strong, but fairly covert, level of homophobia in football which is a real disincentive to come out".

He said the AFL was unlikely to deal with the issue of gay footballers until one was identified.

Any mention of vilification based on sexual preference is strangely absent from AFL Rule 30, which is intended to combat the vilification of players.

But, according to gay comic and morning radio presenter Adam Richard, it is not just the absence of rules protecting gay rights that is inhibiting the emergence of gay AFL footballers.

Richard said that some in society were slower than others to embrace changing community attitudes towards homosexuals. "I know a friend of mine was writing an article for a gay newspaper a couple of years ago and contacted a club, which I will not name, and he was told in no uncertain terms there were no gay players at the club and there never would be any players at the club," Richard said.

Brett Connell, general manager of the Victorian Amateur Football Association, said: "Let's be honest, footy has been about beer and blokes for many, many years, unfortunately."

The chief executive of the AFL Players Association, Rob Kerr, said he could not identify a reason why there had never been a declared homosexual footballer but said the association would fully support any player who announced this.

The treatment of past sports stars who have "come out" has hardly been encouraging.

Billie Jean King, the legendary American tennis champion, said she lost 10 years of sponsorship deals when she was outed as gay.

English soccer star Justin Fashanu, in 1990, became the first and only English soccer player to announce he was homosexual. His career plummeted after the announcement and in 1998 he hanged himself.

It was not quite as tough an ordeal for NSW rugby league star Ian Roberts when he came out in 1995 as Australia's first gay footballer - but neither was it easy. One letter he received may go some way to answering why there has never been an openly gay AFL footballer. "AIDS will finish you in hell. SODOMIST. An arsehole bandit. You are pure filth and will die SOON!" it read.

Bold is mine. Revolting. Don't know what you big strapping blokes are afraid of but be warned. Plenty of us "asrsehole bandits" can take care of ourselves. We have no intention of making your Het life easier by offing ourselves. Beating the shit out of homophobes is more our style.

And we don't want to have sex with you. Get over yourselves. And leave footy out of it.