In a wide-ranging interview with the Times of London, Sepp Blatter, the head of FIFA, soccer’s worldwide governing body, addressed why gay soccer (or football) players don’t come out.
“There are gay footballers, but they don’t declare it because they think it will not be accepted in these macho organizations. But football is open for everybody, which is why they made a gay competition in South America. And look at women’s football: homosexuality is more popular there.”
With the South America comment, Blatter is referring to the gay soccer championships held in Buenos Aires last year; they are in London this August. As for women, I am not aware of publicly out female players. It might be like the WNBA, where there are a lot of lesbian players known within a small circle of like-minded fans, but almost none that are publicly out.
Efforts have started to address homophobia within the English Premier League, but like U.S. professional sports there are no openly gay players.
Even in Britian, a country that legalized gay marriage in 2005, attitudes among athletes toward homosexuality remain stuck in the past, the Culture of Soccer blog notes. Homophobic chants remain common in stadiums there. When the BBC’s radio program Five Live attempted to poll Premier League managers on homophobia, none returned the survey. The Independent had more luck in getting responses to its survey of professional players in England. The results were not promising, however: 57 percent of all players and an astonishing 77 percent of League One players said that football is homophobic.
Blatter is stating the obvious in acknowledging gay players in the sport, but attitudes on both sides of the Atlantic remain depressing the same. Little will change until an athlete can feel comfortable coming out and continuing his career. –Jim Buzinski
on Mar 12th, 2008 at 9:25 PM
UK legalized civil unions, not gay marriage. For the truth about gay marriage check out our trailer. Produced to educate & defuse the controversy it has a way of opening closed minds & provides some sanity on the issue: http://www.OUTTAKEonline.com
on Mar 13th, 2008 at 5:58 PM
Still not sure what he means by “And look at women’s football: homosexuality is more popular there” – something lost in the translation maybe?! I know of no publicly out players but you’re right, we dykes have a pretty good idea which ones bat for our team… so to speak
on Mar 14th, 2008 at 1:00 AM
I’m not sure I understand what he means when he says, “There are gay footballers, but they don’t declare it because they think it will not be accepted in these macho organizations. But football is open for everybody, which is why they made a gay competition in South America.”
It almost sounds like he’s saying that there are gay people who play football but because of their fear of the machismo of the professional leagues they are all in the gay football leagues that were developed to open football to everyone.
Again, a lot gets lost in translation and maybe I’m reading way too much into the statement.
on Mar 18th, 2008 at 2:05 PM
what he’s saying (badly) is:
Football is open to everyone, and gay (men) should be welcome on any team, as there are gay (men) who play football, as indicated by the tournament in Brazil this past year. And look at womens football, there are alot of gay (women) playing football.
that’s my take.
A good quote for the gay (men), bad quote for women’s football. But, he’s a dude, so whatevers.