LGBT+ History Month: Football’s Stance

'The problem is clear. Football’s culture is not a welcoming one, and that needs to change.'

Image: Wikimedia Commons / Paul Bailey | Robbie Rogers (left)

Image: Wikimedia Commons / Paul Bailey | Robbie Rogers (left)

February 2021, 52 years on from the Stonewall riots in America, we celebrate the annual LGBT+ History month. The date of writing, 19 February, is also of significance, as this marks what would have been the 60th birthday of football’s first openly gay man, Justin Fashanu.


Content Warning: Sexual Assault; Suicide


Once his coming out story made headlines in the Sun in October 1990, no football club offered Fashanu a full-time contract. In 1992, Fashanu agreed to front Loud’n’Proud, a new national radio series aimed at young lesbians and gay men, but the pilot involving him as presenter was turned down, with him being replaced by a female presenter for BBC Radio 1.

Embed from Getty Images

Fashanu later committed suicide in 1998, following allegations that he had sexually assaulted a seventeen-year-old in Maryland, USA, a state in which homosexual acts were illegal at the time.

Police found him dead in a garage he had broken into in London. His suicide note denied the charges, and stated that he had fled the US because he knew he would not get a fair trial due to his homosexuality.

He added in the note, “I realised that I had already been presumed guilty. I do not want to give any more embarrassment to my friends and family.”

As a final blow to Justin and his legacy, his brother, John, decided to reject him and his sexuality. Following comments he made just after his brother came out, John told TalkSPORT in 2012 that Justin was not gay, but rather an attention seeker.


Since Fashanu’s death, you can count on the fingers of one hand how many male football players have come out, with even fewer doing so during their playing days, with most electing to do so after their retirement.

Those who have come out while active in men’s footballer are, namely, Anton Hysén, Robbie Rogers, Collin Martin, and Andy Brennan, with Rogers temporarily entering retirement to avoid backlash, Martin being wrongly sent off in a game after Junior Flemmings used a homophobic slur against him, and Hysén being branded a “global one-off” by the BBC following his announcement.

Embed from Getty Images

It is more than likely that there were several other incidents involving these players that have gone unreported, and this is just taking into consideration homosexual footballers.

Transgender footballers are struggling to enter professional leagues as many institutions rule out their participation due to the supposed advantages they may have, when in reality all should have an equal opportunity to play the game they love.

The problem is clear. Football’s culture is not a welcoming one, and that needs to change.

I spoke to a few friends on the topic of LGBT+ representation within the sport of football, expectedly receiving a unanimous response.

Embed from Getty Images

“As someone who’s spent a fair amount of time being invested in football… I genuinely feel like it might be a very long time before LGBT representation improves (nay, exists) within the sport.

“It’s obviously been talked about before but it’s shocking to me that not a single premier league footballer or manager… has come out in the last 20, maybe 25 years.

“It’s still so weird to think that it kind of exists in this weird bubble where players literally can’t and won’t come out, even though proportionally there just has to be a fair amount of them.”

This atmosphere clearly hasn’t caused any footballers to come out, so it’s debatable how effective it’s been.

Another commented that “particularly within football, the sort of atmosphere and energy that groups who watch sports give off is very masculine and heterosexual, which can be somewhat off-putting.”

A third individual I spoke to noted that there is a “general consensus that people would only come out if they were retired because of homophobia.”

However, it is also pretty clear to see that attempts are being made, particularly at the highest level, to become inclusive and to create a more welcoming atmosphere for those within football who are members of the LGBT+ community.

“For football, I’m not sure that many more institutional [efforts] can be made to make it a ‘safe environment’ for players and fans to feel safer – certainly at an international level there’s a lot of emphasis on LGBT inclusion, but that doesn’t, in my experience, trickle down to a grassroots level.

“This atmosphere clearly hasn’t caused any footballers to come out, so it’s debatable how effective it’s been.”

Embed from Getty Images

Another noted, however, that the issue does not lie within the institutions of sport, certainly not anymore.

“There’s Football v Homophobia, the rainbow laces campaign, which is good, but it’s not about players or corporate attitudes, it’s about the attitudes of the people who come and watch. That is the issue.

“Would they chant and jeer someone of the opposing team if they were gay? Yes. That is what needs to change.”

It’s clear that the problem doesn’t lie exclusively with the corporations of football. The FA have an equality policy in place, the EFL is partnered with the Pride in Football group, and the rainbow laces campaign has been going on for several years now.

We are now in a time where discrimination is not and should never be accepted, but unfortunately, it seems there is still a long way to go before we reach true equality in football. Only then can we truly call it ‘the beautiful game’.