Graham Le Saux was the target of antigay taunts.
A poll of 2,000 soccer fans in England found that “70% had heard anti-gay abuse in grounds in the past five years and more than half felt authorities did not do enough about it.” A majority also thought that homophobia from fans is what keeps gay players in the closet.
“No one will ever come out – I’ve a mate in League One and he won’t come out. He’s worried about his transfer fee,” one semipro player said in the survey, according to U.K. Gay News.
The use of homophobic slurs, often as part of a chant, is disturbingly common at English soccer matches, directed at players either perceived to be gay or just hated enough by opposing fans (“He’s big, he’s black. He takes it up his crack,” was chanted to Sol Campbell last year).
Former England star Graham Le Saux, who was repeatedly taunted after rumors wrongly labeled him as being gay, said: “The homophobic taunting and bullying left me close to walking away from football. I went through times that were like depression.”
The survey was commissioned by the gay rights group Stonewall, which recommended that fans who use homophobic slurs receive the same sanctions as those who use racist slurs.
The most interesting finding to me is that 63% of respondents think that gay players stay closeted out of fear of homophobic abuse from fans. Only 15% think it is because teammates would not want to play on the same team with an openly gay player. In the U.S., the reaction of teammates is most often cited anecdotally about why gay pro jocks stay closeted.
The Premier League has vowed to clean up the homophobic abuse by fans at games, but the founder of the Gay Football Supporters’ Network, Darryl Telles, told the Daily Star: “I am a Spurs season ticket holder but I only attend matches with 12 other gay supporters. I’d feel unsafe with any less.”
You can read the detailed survey and report here.
on Aug 13th, 2009 at 7:55 AM
I’m American, but have been to a couple professional football/soccer matches in London. While I didn’t hear any homophobic slurs at the matches, I did hear a couple slurs against Pakistanis at a Chelsea home match at Stamford Bridge.
In general, the atmosphere at both matches (the other was at Arsenal’s old stadium Highbury) had a high element of thuggery, or hooliganism as they call it in England. Much more of a rough and tough crowd than I’ve experienced at U.S. arenas and stadiums.
on Aug 13th, 2009 at 12:03 PM
Emm.. That’s a far misleading title for this article Cyd! It’s not that homophobic is rampant in football, they’ve not interviewed players it’s that 70% of fans have heard some assholes yelling homophobic epithets. That’s a very real difference.
Too bad they didn’t ask the players if they would support a gay teammate.
Eric
on Aug 13th, 2009 at 1:20 PM
Eric, I wrote the headline and you might be correct, but changing it might affect any external links so will leave as is.
on Aug 13th, 2009 at 4:06 PM
to me the words “rampant in English Soccer” means across the whole game from players to fans, If the Players were asked if they would support a gay player, You wouldn’t get an answer. I’m more a rugby man but i’m going to watch some matchs just to see how ESPN deals with any chanting
on Aug 14th, 2009 at 12:07 PM
This is so not news nor surprising but still good to be posted.