Jake Daniels: Why Blackpool player's cisn to e out as gay matters | CNN

Contents:

• JAKE DANIELS BE FIRST UK MALE FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY SCE 1990
• PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLERS OPENLY GAY RELATNSHIP AMID WORLD CUP NTROVERSY
• WHO ARE THE ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP GAY FOOTBALLERS?
• WHY THERE ARE STILL NO OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLERS THE PREMIER LEAGUE
• AT LEAST 20 FOOTBALLERS PREMIER LEAGUE AND CHAMPNSHIP ARE GAY BUT THEY'RE AAID TO E OUT SAYS EX-CLUB BOSS
• 8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY
• GARY LEKER SAYS HE KNOWS TWO GAY PREMIER LEAGUE STARS AND HOP THEY WILL E OUT AT QATAR WORLD CUP
• ENGLISH SOCCER PLAYER JAKE DANIELS SAYS HE IS GAY
• JAKE DANIELS: WHY BLACKPOOL PLAYER’S CISN TO E OUT AS GAY MATTERS

JAKE DANIELS BE FIRST UK MALE FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY SCE 1990

The Blackpool forward Jake Daniels has end s of silence wh men’s football to bee the first player the UK to e out as gay sce Jt Fashanu 1990.

Photograph: Pl Dennis/TGS Photo/ShutterstockDaniels’s revelatn is a strikg landmark that when men’s football is more engaged wh social issu than any recent time, but still unable to ce progrs LGBTQ reprentatn wh the year Alai Uned’s Josh Cavallo beme the only male top-flight profsnal footballer the world to e out as gay, but others are yet to follow. In six months the men’s World Cup will be played Qatar, where homosexualy is illegal, and Cavallo revealed to the Guardian he would be “sred” to play at the tournament, the pnacle of world English football specifilly, the shadow of the talented and unfulfilled Fashanu still lgers over the game. The England ternatnal me out at the end of his reer and was to take his own life eight years later, Fashanu, Jt’s niece, who ns a charable foundatn his name, said that Daniels’s cisn would “e as a huge fort to the many footballers at all levels of the game still secretly livg as gay and who still feel unable to e out”.

LONDON, Jan 26 (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - England’s cisn to classify a soccer chant as anti-gay shows a game transn, LGBT+ fans say, as thori nont homophobia and racism the home of morn football. Players om Chelsea FC, currently third the Premier League, are routely mocked om the stands wh loud chants of “rent boys” - slang for male sex workers and a dig at the area’s historic reputatn as a gay this month, the Crown Prosecutn Service (CPS) for England and Wal - an pennt body that cis which s to prosecute - cid the chant uld amount to a hate crime, which uld receive stiffer sentencg. Football erng bodi around the world have e unr prsure to clean up the multibilln-dollar sport, wh Black players regularly abed om the stands and no openly gay or bisexual men playg the top leagu.

PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLERS OPENLY GAY RELATNSHIP AMID WORLD CUP NTROVERSY

Homophobic chantg is not limed to English football, wh Mexin fans banned here om attendg two home World Cup qualifiers g up Israeli team was vtigated by s Football Associatn after supporters mocked a player whose brother is MENTALITYLGBT+ fans said the CPS cisn was long overdue, even though many favour dialogue over bans or jail terms. ”Nor is Chelsea the only club fightg anti-gay tnts - teams cludg Liverpool, Tottenham and Leeds have spoken out agast their own fans g the “rent boy” chant this and players at Brighton, a astal English rort known for s large LGBT+ muny, are also regularly tnted here wh chants such as: "Do your boyiend know you're here? He has sce lled out here homophobic abe at gam and on social top players are now speakg out for LGBT+ rights, some donng rabow armbands at last year’s Euros tournament after Hungary rtricted gay and transgenr ntent for backg is ccial to eraditg prejudice, said Liz Ward, the director of programm at Brish chary Stonewall, which promot LGBT+ cln sport among s she said Cavallo’s first-hand experience of abe at the top of sport showed there was more to be done.

Now, has been revealed that two Premier League teammat are a gay an exclive story by The Sun, the two Premier League footballers are reportedly open about beg a gay relatnship, at least as far as the drsg room go. Earlier this month, the Qatari ambassador to the UK had warned same-sex upl not to kiss public if they will travel to watch the World, World Cup ambassador Khalid Salman ed outrage last week after sayg that beg gay is tantamount to havg "damage the md.

This is why the possibily of havg two active Premier League players speak up about beg gay is such an important topic for the LGBTQ+ muny at the moment.

WHO ARE THE ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP GAY FOOTBALLERS?

There are mours about other gay players, but remas to be seen if they will e out publicly while still nversatns about the topic will surely ntue to the World Cup, pecially wh thoands of spectators flockg to Qatar to enjoy the event. As the World Cup go on a untry where homosexualy is illegal, many global football fans are havg to reckon wh the sports' soccer remas one of the most popular sports around the world, very few players have been able to e out and enjoy a succsful reer afterwards. Gay players face prsure om teammat, ownership, ach, and fans over their are some of the men who have e out, fightg those stereotyp, and pavg the way for LGBTQ+ athlet who e after them.

WHY THERE ARE STILL NO OPENLY GAY FOOTBALLERS THE PREMIER LEAGUE

He me out 2011, and won the seventh season of Swedish realy show Let's Dance, beg the first out gay person to w. Rogers me out as gay 2013, beg the first out gay man to pete a top North Amerin pro sports league when he played for the LA Galaxy that same year.

Two players and another man were ught on mera vortg wh a pal well known the mic dtry a homosexual y that will shock soccer, this acrdg to News of the World. In the meantime, our own Jenny Woo - who herself enjoys beg the pany of women - has put on her gaydar and is up to the challenge attemptg to terme which of the English Premiership players may have been volved.

AT LEAST 20 FOOTBALLERS PREMIER LEAGUE AND CHAMPNSHIP ARE GAY BUT THEY'RE AAID TO E OUT SAYS EX-CLUB BOSS

Matt Taylor Based on what we're readg above, Matt Taylor gets 3 to 1 odds as beg one of the gay footballers volved this salac y. Pecially sce I am such a iend to the gay muny, but my gaydar here is full gear and I almost have gots to list Ronaldo as a favore at 1 to 2 odds. Nearly 25 years after Jt Fashanu took his own life, followg years of homophobic abe, Brish football still has not had another openly gay player the top flight.

The armband was never much of a gture, but would have been a small act of fiance at the tournament beg award to Qatar, where homosexualy is punishable by imprisonment and some s, ath.

“Pathetic, ” said Blackpool forward Jake Daniels, the only out gay player the English league, on Instagram after hearg the news. Former footballer Clarke Carlisle, a proment spokman for player welfare, said eight Premier League players had told him they were gay. Consir the se of (heterosexual) Graeme Le Sx, who played for Chelsea and England the 1990s and 2000s and was brand “gay” for admtg he read The Guardian.

8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY

Fans tnted him wh homophobic chants and Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler famoly waggled his backsi at Le Sx durg a match. The clubs and the FA have ma efforts to improve the culture wh iativ such as Kick It Out, which mpaigns agast discrimatn and Football v Homophobia, backed by the FA, which offers support to fans, grassroots teams and top-level clubs.

Even where men’s sport has had one or two high-profile gay players, as wh Gareth Thomas gby unn, they rema outliers.

GARY LEKER SAYS HE KNOWS TWO GAY PREMIER LEAGUE STARS AND HOP THEY WILL E OUT AT QATAR WORLD CUP

In recent years, however, a signifint body of amic evince has documented how lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT+) people are beg creasgly accepted the football dtry (e. Specifilly, we draw on semi-stctured terviews wh 35 openly gay male fans to addrs the role of the Football Associatn (FA) – English football’s erng body – as well as the clubs themselv, tacklg homophobia football. At least 20 footballers Premier League and Champnship are gay but they're aaid to e out says ex-club bossOpenly gay Leeds Uned director David Haigh says players nfid him - and he believ clubs uld benef mercially if stars e outDavid Haigh durg his time at Leeds UnedAt least 20 football stars are gay and “aaid” to e out, a top club’s ex-director claims.

He spoke out after Belgium fenr Carl Hoefkens told how he had played wh two Premier League footballers who were gay but publicly ‘ the closet’.

Dad-of-two Hoefkens, 39, who played for Stoke and Wt Brom om, told Belgian newspaper De Zondag: “I played alongsi three gay footballers, cludg one who was a genuely big name.

ENGLISH SOCCER PLAYER JAKE DANIELS SAYS HE IS GAY

” Mr Haigh was ntacted by gay players om different top flight clubs, but adms was difficult for them to go public about their sexualy. ” But he do believe certa untri ‘own upon’ gay relatnships and so club ownership, and sponsors, uld be a problem. Attus towards homosexualy sport and most promently, wh English football, have been put the spotlight followg Surrey and England cricketer Steven Davi' recent announcement that he is gay.

The general perceptn is that English football is not ready for another gay footballer to 'e out' and PR gu Max Clifford, for example, has been hired by a number of Premier League players to keep their homosexualy a secret. Clifford pots to the cultural differenc between gby and football that allowed Gareth Thomas, the Welsh ternatnal gby player, to feel fortable announcg his homosexualy a number of years ago. Clifford and those who enurage footballers to hi their homosexualy n nversely be poted to as beg part of the problem the game has wh homophobia though.

It is a fair assumptn to make that, a liberal-md Bra, if we had a number of openly gay players the Premier League, we would eventually give homophobia the red rd too.

JAKE DANIELS: WHY BLACKPOOL PLAYER’S CISN TO E OUT AS GAY MATTERS

Dpe the current terrace rhetoric, is likely few people the untry would oppose gay footballers the Premier League eher. Eric Armanazi is manager and goalkeeper for the UK's first ever openly gay football club Stonewall FC, which was formed 1991. "If there were a number of gay footballers, fans would eventually realise they were jt a reprentatn of society like black players too.

While Armanazi hop a gay footballer will one day 'e out', he is unr no illns how difficult this uld potentially for the dividual.