Football

Coming Out on the Pitch

With the European Championships in Germany taking place, how far has Football gone on its inclusion journey to include LGBTQ+ fans?

Football is a globally recognised entertainment brand throughout the world and it should be a safe, welcoming environment for everyone. Unfortunately, being LGBTQ+ in football has never been an easy journey and I am delighted that FNF (Friedrich Naumann Foundation) has taken up the mantle in providing the space and opportunity to discuss these issues with the event that I moderated last week in Brussels, Belgium.

LGBTQ+ Inclusion into one of the most “male” dominated sports Football, on the other hand, women’s football, which has massively increased its global appeal over recent years, does not have anything like the issues that does which really highlight how this macho, “banter” aggressive team sport has found difficulty in accepting LGBTQ+ players and fans. 

However, as with all journeys of inclusion, there has to be a starting point and an objective. The openness and frankness regarding inclusion in Football, with its many initiatives at a community level, is great, but to be honest, the action needs to be taking place amongst governing bodies – making teams seriously impeded when their fans misbehave, this might then actually have an everlasting effect on those fans who have scuppered their own team's success.

Seriously, though, this is a complex debate and I have tried to ask several questions throughout the comment piece, which will percolate discussion, and hopefully get people talking, finding ideas and working with various organisations to deepen LGBTQ+ inclusion in football.

Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, Liberal International Human Rights LGBTQI+ Spokesperson

Coming out as an openly gay footballer in today’s world, what kind of reaction do you think football fans give?

As a football fan since birth, I am aware of how passionate people are about their teams, results, and celebrations which follow the “highs and lows” of following their team on the pitch. However, the language at football stadiums has always been crude, especially if you are hiding your sexuality and hearing shouts of “gay boy” or “faggot”.  It is as if you have to suddenly try to pretend to be someone you’re not because your body shakes with fear and those warning mechanisms inside you create a kind of panic which is indescribable.

I believe that’s a regular life experience of an LGBTQ+ fan, so then what could it be like to be one of those players on the pitch and shield your sexuality? This could be a reason, why there are so few active professional footballers who have come out. Sadly, many come out only after retiring from the game. Thomas Hitzelspegee, and Zander Murray are examples. Coming out in a world that still does not fully accept LGBTQ+ players, we also see the tragic loss through the case of the UK’s first openly gay footballer Justin Fashanu, who ended up losing his life to suicide in the late 1990s.

Twenty-five years on and we are unfortunately still in a similar position. While we do have a few openly gay footballers- Josh Cavallo in Australia, Jake Daniels for Blackpool FC, and Czech footballer Jakub Jankto for Slavia Prague - but none are playing in any of the top men’s leagues of the major European nations, such as England, France, Germany, Italy or Spain.

Why is that? Is it because fans on the terraces cannot simply remove sexuality from the game and support all players whoever they are? Having been part of the rise of LGBTQ+ fan groups, as Chair of Soho FC, an LGBTQ+ football club, been part of Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign, founding member of SportsMedia LGBT, and having been involved in other LGBTQ+ activities in football, it is still horrifying that despite all these initiatives, the homophobia, biphobia and transphobia continue to happen. There have been many reports of homophobic and transphobic comments via different social media channels. Unfortunately, some fans have started to use anti-LGBTQ+ phrases and words to punish players who make mistakes on the pitch. This is being reported by several media companies who have highlighted this recent increasing trend and at an event earlier this year in the UK Parliament, these companies presented and demonstrated their analysis.

Would it not be easier if a large group of players all came out together? That way, the focus would not be on one player and the group could share the media attention and burden of coverage, which comes with these kinds of media stories. Fans would hopefully not then heap abuse on one individual and hopefully with a group, fans would be more empathetic and less antagonistic between different teams if the story was coordinated and managed properly. However, recent stories like this in Germany only serve to exacerbate the issue, especially when certain organisations brief newspapers whilst using a silhouette image on the front page of the paper. This only serves to instil fear and apprehension for anyone coming out into the world of football.

As I mentioned earlier, the growth of LGBTQ+ supporter clubs started about ten years ago, with the Gay Gooners (Arsenal) and then my club (Proud Canaries) from Norwich City. Fast forward to today, there are nearly 50 Clubs with LGBTQ+ fan groups. The Fan groups have made increasing noise through Pride in Football and Football Pride organisations, which parade at celebratory diversity and inclusion events at the stadiums; with pride progress rainbow banners. This gives visibility that there are many LGBTQ+ fans but chants and abuse should warrant greater action by authorities to ban fans from grounds where their behaviour brings their club into disrepute.

However, unfortunately, we come back around to the greater issue; football authorities taking action to rid the sport of fans who promulgate hate whether that be LGBTQ+, race, misogyny, or disability. Sadly, minorities are used as political  “footballs” to score points against opposing teams. The added toxicity for LGBTQ+ fans is the apparent encouragement of staging major sporting events in countries where LGBTQ+ freedoms don’t exist. Whether that be Qatar, Russia or Saudi Arabia. The desire of world governing bodies to take major events to new places is great, but are they really considering the views of LGBTQ+ fans?

There are contrasting views on this issue, whereby I am very much in the belief, that pushing boundaries and encouraging visibility globally is fine. However, is it ok to put LGBTQ+ fans at risk or even discourage them from going because they believe that they genuinely can’t be their authentic selves?

As an internationally known and openly LGBTQ+ politician, I know where my boundaries of security are and I know I would refuse to attend events in cities in which I don’t feel safe, but I don’t expect everyone to agree and will not stop others from going. The fact that fans have to make that decision and judgement shows there is a long way to go in this area of LGBTQ+ football inclusion.

Furthermore, from a political perspective, the rise of right-wing fascist groups across many countries in Europe, including Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and France to name but a few means that the push for LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports is heading into a difficult era. The inclusion push over the past twelve years may now start going backwards, and the politics of the right disables the progress of inclusive values and missions. In addition, the “banter” nature of aggressive ideological right-wing groups means that the chants, name-calling and genuinely retrograde comments about anyone who doesn’t fit a particular stereotype will again be acceptable to use.

I am afraid there is still a great amount of work to do across the entire European continent. Those of us who have a voice and are willing to shout for LGBTQ+ people to be included in football and sports generally will have to work harder to get our message, visibility and desire to be included at the top of our campaigning priorities.