The Football v Homophobia campaign welcomed the news on Friday that the professional footballer Robbie Rogers had chosen to ‘come out’ about his sexuality.
The huge amount of support he has been offered by the football authorities, fellow players, football supporters and the LGBT community has been overwhelming and shows that football in the UK as a whole has moved some considerable way since Justin Fashanu came out in 1990.
However, we must also accept that Robbie, like many other elite gay male athletes has chosen to be open about his sexuality at the end of his professional career. His blog seems to reflect a belief that in order to live an openly gay life, he needed to leave professional football.
Football v Homophobia is campaigning for a football environment where LGBT people feel welcome at all levels from grass roots to the pro game. We believe that this can only be achieved through improved sanctioning of homophobia within football and investment in a wide-ranging programme of education about the issues for all stakeholders.
As a first step, we would encourage people to visit this page on our website and check out our suggested actions: