Time to boot homophobia out of our game

Robbie Rogers

Stonewall and Paddy Power have teamed up to unite against homophobia in football. Players in England and Scotland have been urged to wear the rainbow coloured laces in their fight against homophobia.

All 134 clubs in both the English and Scottish leagues have been sent the accessories as Britain’s leading gay rights charity launches a challenging campaign to make a change in the sport. The campaign’s main focus is to change the attitudes towards homophobia rather than urging players to come out. Although there are no known openly gay players in the English and Scottish leagues, the campaigners want the players to wear the laces in the games falling on the 21st and 22nd of September.

Laura Doughty, deputy chief executive of Stonewall, which is being backed by the bookmaker Paddy Power, said, ”It’s time for football clubs and players to step up and make a visible stand against homophobia in our national game. By wearing rainbow laces players, it will send a message of support to gay players and can begin to drag football into the 21st century.”

Only two footballers openly admitted and publicised the fact they were gay, one of them being former England Under-21 international Justin Fashanu. He came out in 1990, before he took his own life eight years later. Another one being Robbie Rodgers, an American playing for Leeds United. He left the club by mutual consent and a month later announced he was gay.