Brilliant. If only I cared whether you find my question interesting or not, your barb may have hit home. For the record, I don't know how many "openly Catholic" footballers there are either, or "openly Jewish". I have no interest in that either. Make of that what you will.
Anyway. Basically, you are saying you don't know whether PL locker rooms are homophobic. You are just drawing inferences from statistical implications when there could be many other reasons for the disparity in numbers and from reports of different sports in different countries.
Once again, I would be surprised, with the personalities we have in the squad, if the environment at City was homophobic. I could be wrong, of course, and tbf I was surprised last year when Aaron Ramsdale said he would be calling out homophobia at Arsenal, so maybe there is an issue more generally between squad members. It had never really occurred to me that that would still be the case.
Clearly, I get the issue with a minority of fans at grounds and wider social media with fanbases from less liberal countries, but that wasn't the question.
It wasn't a barb. I was simply stating that I find your position surprising given that the question you asked is clearly influenced by the number of openly gay footballers. I wasn't having a go, but just shocked by it.Brilliant. If only I cared whether you find my question interesting or not, your barb may have hit home. For the record, I don't know how many "openly Catholic" footballers there are either, or "openly Jewish". I have no interest in that either. Make of that what you will.
Anyway. Basically, you are saying you don't know whether PL locker rooms are homophobic. You are just drawing inferences from statistical implications when there could be many other reasons for the disparity in numbers and from reports of different sports in different countries.
Once again, I would be surprised, with the personalities we have in the squad, if the environment at City was homophobic. I could be wrong, of course, and tbf I was surprised last year when Aaron Ramsdale said he would be calling out homophobia at Arsenal, so maybe there is an issue more generally between squad members. It had never really occurred to me that that would still be the case.
Clearly, I get the issue with a minority of fans at grounds and wider social media with fanbases from less liberal countries, but that wasn't the question.
It wasn't a barb. I was simply stating that I find your position surprising given that the question you asked is clearly influenced by the number of openly gay footballers. I wasn't having a go, but just shocked by it.
And you're right. I didn't say definitively that locker rooms were to blame, because I haven't done an empirical study, but based on the fact that there aren't many openly gay footballers, there's a possibility that they aren't the best environments to cultivate inclusive environments for gay players. But more learned people have done some work on this, as the following summary paper alludes to. It cites numerous studies that would back up this proposition.
As you yourself have said, clearly there must be something wrong with Arsenals dressing room, or Ramsdale's broader view of football culture, otherwise he wouldn't have spoken out. Another, more cynical conclusion could be that it's a PR exercise, in the same vein of Hendo, who promptly backtracked once the Saudi salary hit his bank account. But it's not unreasonable to take him at his word and that there's no smoke without fire.
But again, let's refer to the lived experience of someone. These were quotes that Hitzlsperger dropped in relation to why he didn't come out in his career. I think he'd know better than you or I whether locker room culture in football is inclusive or not.
‘Ending your life with suicide, because you’re gay and feel you don’t fit in, is horrible and must stop.’ He had actually planned to come out while still playing, at Wolfsburg in the 2011-12 season. Three things stopped him. First, he’d heard homophobic sentiments from some team-mates who didn’t know he was gay. Second, he feared coming out might disrupt any dressing room he was part of.
Mainly, however, it was because a friend advised him first to speak to a lawyer who also gave PR advice to many German celebrities, to hear what he should or shouldn’t disclose. ‘I walked into his office convinced I was going to come out soon. And he said don’t do it. The guy’s been looking after celebrities for many years and he had so much experience.
‘He said you will not be strong enough. That’s your private life. Nobody needs to know what goes on in your private life. Play football. Go out, to gay bars or whatever you want. But don’t give an interview saying you’re gay.
‘I was so adamant when I walked into his office that I was going to do it. And I left thinking, “OK, I’m never going to come out publicly”. He told me don’t do it, and the reasons were the pressure, the scrutiny, and the more you say the more you’re effectively inviting people into your private life.
‘I have to admit now that probably he was right. He saw I wasn’t strong enough and he gave me a good piece of advice. I didn’t like him for a while but he was probably right.’
Well saidPlenty of gay men in Arabic countries that live happily and peacefully, the custom is to live as 'good friends' in public. Change is gradual and accelerated by exposure to the modern world and these Sporting events help do that.
Its not that long ago we were castrating war heroes in this country for being homosexual. Who knows how attitudes will change over the next 20-30 years in that area of the world.
RacistGets black book out and starts scribbling ;)
If James McClean can refuse to wear a poppy shirt then any footballer, regardless of their personal belief system, can do the same with rainbow laces.Just go be gay, its 2023 nobody fucking cares, just stop going on and on and on and on about it. I hate the weird obsession with forcing Muslim players to wear rainbow gear aswell. Just leave people alone, if they do something homophobic punish them. A forced protest is just bizarre to me
Yep. Hated that Black Lives Matter because all lives matter ffsMaybe there should just be an inclusive theme aimed at all . Doesn’t have to be LBGT, religious, colour etc .
Just include ALL no matter what !!