The players Football Association, (PFA) in England will send a poster out to all 92 Premier League and Football League clubs to raise awareness of homophobia in the game.
The union has been working with leading figures in the game for the past few months to tackle the issue and will send out the poster to try to create a 'so what?' culture around homosexuality in football and reassure a gay footballer that he will have support from his club, team-mates and the wider public if he does choose to come out.
The poster shows two shirts in a locker room – one with No 7 Gay and the other with No 11 Straight – written on it, with the words ‘When you are part of a team you are never on your own – we are all winners. Football is committed to tackling homophobia’.
The poster has the official backing of the FA, Premier League, Football League, League Managers’ Association and the Kick It Out campaign.
'We want the authorities, clubs and fans to create a 'so what?' culture around being gay in football. As the players' union, we consider it a vital matter. There has been a step forward recently and football is taking homophobia seriously.'
No player or official in Britain has come out since Justin Fashanu in 1990 although Hysen in Sweden and David Testo in America did last year. English cricketer Steve Davies and Welsh rugby player Thomas are also openly gay.
Chris Basiurski, chair of the Gay Footballers Support Network, is glad to see the initiative after what, he believes, was a lack of urgency by the Premier League and Football League to address homophobia in football.
Results:
Nations Cup
Eq./Guinea 0 Zambia 1
Libya 2 Senegal 1
Zambia and Eq.Guinea qualified for Q/F
Subscribe to this comment's feed
