Kick Homophobia out of Football

This action by the FA is very commendable- for too long homophobia and racism have been prevalent in some quarters- look what happened to Justin Fashanu who happened to be both gay and black.

And Graham Le Saux was branded as gay and was subjected to endless homophobia despite being straight and married- he was considered gay merely because he was known to read books and broadsheet newspapers! Such behaviours were regarded as being very effeminate in a very macho football environment. He had to sue a national tabloid newspaper for libel.

BlackJack:

right… I don’t follow soccer for the obvious reasons (I’m American after all)
but I know that in a lot of sports there is a certain level of homophobia and name calling and I’m… actually decently okay with it.
I know the guys who I play rugby with have my back on just about everything. They know I like dick. And yes, they do shout some pretty horrible stuff out on the field. So do I. It’s a part of the sport. You bring everything you’ve got to the field: your violence, your anger, your will to win. You hit hard, you mock your opponents, you do everything you can to win. And then, once it’s over, you leave it out on the field. Your team and the other team get together, drink heavily, and sing dirty songs together. That’s the sport, that’s the culture. And there’s a very large difference between saying homophobic things and being homophobic.

I live in a rugby town. The beauty of rugby is that everything is played out on the field- violence or bigotry in the stadia or outside is not tolerated.

I used to work in a local Chinese restaurant- on one occasion we were swarmed with visiting Irish fans who’s team had wiped the floor with our local team, who are one of the best in British rugby. There was about 66% Irish to 33% local team supporters- both sides enjoyed the game and left any animosity at the club ground- the atmoshphere in the restaurant was never likely to kick off into violence (even though the visiting Irish drank the bar dry).

That would not happen amongst football supporters here in many clubs, sadly.