I find the news that 8% of all supporters would not even watch their team play if it included a gay player rather refreshing. That 8% of all supporters carry such bigotry only makes me feel sorry for them and proud with the other 92% who couldn’t care less. There are numerous footballers who are gay, it’s just that we don’t know who they are. It’s likely to stay that way for a while and here’s why (and it’s not as grim as you might think).
Anyone who has watched football for as long as I have will have heard plenty of abuse directed at players. My earliest memory was at Ashton Gate when Bristol City were entertaining Millwall. The home fans – and it was more than a few of them – chanted “Zigger, Zagger, Zigger. Millwall’s got a black player”, or something like that. And they did have a black player, just one. I wince with embarrassment and indeed shame at the very memory of it. I was only young and that was the norm at the time. It was years later when I began to wonder how the player felt. I will never, ever forget the memory.
In recent years, Bristol Rovers played Millwall (this is merely a coincidence this anecdote involves the same club) and the visiting striker Neil Harris came under sustained abuse from a very vocal home supporter, but for a very different reason. Harris, you see, had recovered from testicular cancer, but this fan felt it acceptable to call Harris a “fucking eunuch” and that he “had no balls” at frequent intervals. When I intervened – because the steward didn’t – I was told to “fuck off”. I haven’t forgotten this either, but if you think about it, that’s positive too. One idiot out of 6000 supporters is a pain but think of the other 5999.
The revelation to me is not that 8% of supporters wouldn’t watch their team play if a gay player was in the team, but that 92% would. The 92%, I suspect, would not care a jot for so long as that player did his best. Most of us have managed to work out that gay people are much the same as straight people but with one minor difference. They are not mad, bad, sick perverts any more than straight people. A gay footballer is just a footballer and one day, as if it matters, we will probably be surprised at who was gay in the Premier League.
Could you imagine 8% of Queen fans refusing to see the band because Freddie Mercury was gay? Or 8% of Strictly fans refused to watch the show because some of the judges were – gulp! – gay? Or 8% of Tories refusing to vote for their party because Ruth Davidson was gay? (With the latter, it would probably be 50%! Just kidding!!!)
The reason why it will be a good while before a top footballer comes out as gay is not because of the certain media firestorm or the fear of a torrent of abuse from the posh seats. No. It would be, quite simply, because that footballer will always be known as the first superstar gay footballer and probably nothing else. That alone will put back the day when football finally emerges from the dark ages.
This report again gives football fans a bad name which is wrong. Yes, our fans are more “tribal” than those of other sports, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. But the vast majority of fans are not bigots and homophobes and racists and with each new generation all the prejudice is fading away. Most know the difference between banter and abuse.
Someday soon, we won’t need reports like this but in the meantime let’s acknowledge the simple fact that homophobia in society is on the decline. And celebrate the fact that the same applies to much maligned football supporters, too.
And as Gary Lineker said today, if those 8% no longer went to games, “that would be a bonus”.
