Many members of the Dublin Devils FC, Ireland's biggest LGBTQ+ inclusive football team faced the same dilemma, stay in the closet and continue playing football or come out as gay and leave the sport.
To most involved in football, the concept of a gay person playing is alien to them. Grassroots football typically has an old school culture, where traditional straight masculinity is seen as a strength and casual homophobic slurs are thrown about. This makes football an uncomfortable environment for coming out as a gay.
Amateur football takes its lead from the professional game and before last year, when Josh Carvallo and Jake Daniels made the decision to come out as gay, LGBTQ+ had little presence in the men’s game. Discussion of LGBTQ+ people in football was dominated by tabloid rumours of gay footballers in the closet.
Gary Lineker, in his recent well-intentioned but ill-advised comments, alluded to there being gay footballers in the game who are uncomfortable coming out. We need to ask why? Fear of fan reaction is certainly one reason, but perhaps we should look at what the footballing authorities are doing to promote LGBTQ+ participation and the example their own actions are setting.
This week's intervention from the UK's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who told LGBTQ+ fans that they should show "a little bit of flex and compromise" if visiting Qatar was pilloried, from among others, by human rights activist Peter Tatchell, who was prevented from protesting against Qatar's record on human rights in the country this week.
In 2010 FIFA announced, after a now discredited vote, that the 2022 World Cup would be held in Qatar, a country that Human Rights Watch says, "represses the rights of LGBT people and punishes same-sex relations with up to seven years in prison". In response to questions about the fears of gay fans, then FIFA president, Sepp Blatter said that gay people "should refrain from any sexual activities".
Blatter continued: "I think there is too much concern for a competition that will be done only in 12 years".
Twelve years later, despite continued criticism of its dismal human rights record and pressure to reform its laws, Qatar has done nothing to advance LGBTQ+ rights.
Comments from Nasser Al Khater, the Qatari responsible for overseeing the 2022 World Cup, that "Everybody is welcome here and everyone will feel safe when they come to Qatar", mean little to fans coming to a country known to surveil and arrest LGBTQ+ people based on their online activity. Particularly when these comments include a call for "people to be respectful of the culture" and part of that culture is a denial of basic human rights.
Sepp Blatter’s suggestion that this World Cup could be an "opening of this culture" because football has no boundaries and the problem of LGBTQ+ rights in Qatar will be addressed before the World Cup has proved to be totally unfounded. Comments about LGBTQ+ fan safety from Al Khater or current FIFA boss Gianni Infantino carry little weight. Our community wants action not words.
Given Qatar’s history of discrimination and repression, it is doubtful that any LGBTQ+ supporters will feel safe or welcome at the World Cup. What should be a display of elite football, where fans from different cultures, ethnicities and sexualities mix and celebrate the beautiful game, will be a tainted tournament. This is no World Cup for gay people.
The Qatar 2022 World Cup should be a turning point for how gay football fans are treated
What example does FIFA set to fans and players when it chooses money over LGBTQ+ inclusion? Why would fans stop homophobic chanting or players feel more comfortable coming out as gay when the World Cup is held in countries with deeply homophobic laws and FIFA’s action on inclusivity is limited to press releases and flying a rainbow flag outside its HQ in June?
The Qatar 2022 World Cup should be a turning point for how gay football fans are treated. It's important that FIFA reflects on the 2022 World Cup and ensures that it is never again held in countries where LGBTQ+ people can face persecution and threats to their safety.
FIFA should immediately begin working to improve LGBTQ+ inclusivity in the game and World Cup 2026 should have a strong emphasis on LGBTQ+ participation.
A message from our @Socceroos on the @FIFAWorldCup #SupportingThePlayers pic.twitter.com/bUqW2pne1w
— Professional Footballers Australia (@thepfa) October 26, 2022
FIFA’s inaction also impacts LGBTQ+ participation in grassroots football. There’s a strong need for awareness, LGBTQ+ inclusion and zero tolerance bullying policies, if gay people in Ireland are to remain and become more involved in the sport. This needs to come from the FAI.
When the Dublin Devils approached the FAI with an LGBTQ+ inclusion policy and offered to work with them to implement it, there was no response from the FAI.
Just like professional football takes its lead from amateur football, the FAI might be taking its lead from FIFA, where doing nothing substantive on LGBTQ+ inclusion is the status quo.
The Dublin Devils are committed to working constructively with the FAI and our amateur leagues to improve LGBTQ+ participation. We hope that when we make a fresh approach to the FAI that they will listen, show leadership and take action.
In the meantime, we encourage amateur clubs to look at what they can to do to ensure the gay people feel comfortable in their club. Professional clubs can look to the partnership that the Dublin Devils have developed with Shelbourne FC and reach out to LGBTQ+ people in their community.
In the past 20 years, wider society’s acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights has grown enormously, turning into a celebration of gay culture. It’s extremely regrettable that football seems stuck in the 20th century.
After World Cup winner Iker Casillas joked publicly about coming out as gay, Gary Lineker heaped pressure on players he knows are gay.
Our flagship tournament will be held in a country where gay people are repressed and criminalised, LGBTQ+ people are left wondering if there is a space for them in football at all.
