Charlton Athletic, who play in League One (the third tier of English professional football) have become the first professional club in England to set up a team for Gay, Transgender and Intersex players.
Charlton Athletic Set Up First LGBTQI+ Football Team In England
They will recruit from lesbians, gay men, and "plus" sexuals. It is hoped that other clubs including those in the Premier League will follow suit.
Charlton - who are located in the Royal Borough of Greenwich where I was born and grew up - have announced that the team will be called Charlton Athletic Community Trust Invicta* FC. A bit long winded but nobody's quibbling about that.
Charlton aim to provide "Structured playing opportunities for the LGBTQI+ Community."
The move comes after the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee said that homophobia was emerging as a bigger problem in football than any other form of discrimination (and football discriminates against EVERY minority group to some degree in England).
Garry Ginnaw, player-manager of the new team said "There is no place for prejudice in the game. Charlton Athletic were in the forefront of combating racism in football and is now leading the way in the fight against homophobia."
So far, no Premier League star has come out as gay while playing (but ask around the LGBT community and a number are known to have discreetly done the scene).
In 1990, England U21 player Justin Fashanu came out as being gay and was treated so badly by the FA, his club and the game in general that he fell into depression and hanged himself. He had been publicly and virulently disowned by his brother John who was also a professional footballer with Wimbledon FC.
Fans still taunt his name at matches to this day with some of the sickest and most vile chants and songs.
In 1999, Robbie Fowler of Liverpool publicly taunted opponent Graeme le Saux of Chelsea during a match at Stamford Bridge. Le Saux isn't a homosexual but he didn't go drinking and gambling with other players or use prostitutes. Rather, he learned to play the piano and liked to read broadsheet newspapers, that was justification enough for Fowler to spread a rumour that he was a closet homosexual and then publicly "out" him during a match which was being screened live on TV.
The FA took no action against Fowler and Chelsea (le Saux's employers) warned him against suing Fowler because of the bad publicity such an act would have on Chelsea.
These are not isolated incidents in English football. The game is rotten to the core with homophobia and whilst I applaud Charlton's rather courageous act in setting up a team to create a structured environment I'm a bit concerned that if not handled carefully, this could have the effect of creating a ghetto mentality. A sort of "Gays go and play among yourselves and keep away from the rest of us".
I would much rather that the game did more to encourage acceptance of LGBT players in the game rather than pander to the homophobic mentality that is rife in football.
We'll have to watch how this develops.
*Invicta is the motto of the county of Kent, an area that Charlton draw a large part of their support from.
The word is Latin. It means "Undefeated". A good choice for a gay team attempting to set up in the hostile world of Association Football.
Sep 18, 2017 @ 16:14:26
