English football chief urges gay footballers to come out in groups to minimise backlash

Monday, 9 January 2017

The issue of homophobia in football has been the subject of debates and deliberations in England in recent years. Presently, there are no openly gay footballers in the English topflight but several LGBT advocacy groups say this is because the gay players are afraid to come out.

English FA chief, Greg Clarke has urged them to come out in groups so that one person doesn't have to shoulder all the attention.


He said:

 'I put the message out there that if a number of top-level pros want to come out, why don't we synchronise it?'  The Premier League, Football League and the FA could do it at the start of the season. At the start of the season, the crowds are happy, the sun is shining. 

'I was asked if football is ready for top-level pros to come out and I said I'm not sure we were. there was a survey which said people would support gay people in their own team, but I'm worried about what they said about gay people in the other team.'

Clarke also offered the FA's support to any footballer who chooses to come out.

'I've been asking the gay community, "How can we provide more support and orchestrate it so people get the right level of support?". I've met 15 gay sports people in the last four weeks to ask their views, including footballers.'