Post by QPR Report on Oct 21, 2008 8:55:57 GMT
From the Times via BBC Gossip " Instead of sitting joint top with Chelsea, Liverpool would be 14 points worse off if their matches had finished after 58 minutes. "
[Even on some messageboards, you get the impression that while racism and anti-Semitism is at least officially not to be tolerated, there is a little less inhibition vis-a-vis at least cracks about homosexuals]
The Guardian -Homophobia in football faces red cardSupport is growing for action to tackle anti-gay abuse as Peter Tatchell joins an FA campaign against it, writes Mark Gould
Homophobia is rife in British football, and supporters, the clubs and the Professional Footballers Association, (PFA), the players' trade union appear to tolerate it. Every year the Football Association promises to stamp on clubs for anti-gay abuse. And every year that abuse keeps coming. But there are signs of change. On Thursday night at the FA's headquarters in Soho Square, Kick It Out, football's equality and inclusion campaign, hosted a summit meeting to look at ways of beating the abusers.
On the panel was veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who has just joined the FA's anti-homophobia working group. Tatchell said the FA had to take positive action. His idea: recruit half a dozen premiership players to appear in an "MTV-style" pop video speaking out against homophobia and racism and misogyny. "Show it on TV and at football grounds all over the country - the impact would be enormous," he told the meeting.
Jason Bartholomew Hall is one of the organisers of the Justin Fashanu Campaign, which wants the FA and Fashanu's former clubs to commemorate the 11th anniversary of Fashanu's death in May next year. Fashanu, who hung himself in a lock-up garage, remains Britain's only openly gay footballer, an admission for which he received years of abuse from fans and fellow players.
"We haven't really moved on in the 10 years since Justin's death. There isn't anyone in football in the UK or worldwide that is out," Bartholomew Hall said. "I worry that if a player came out the backlash would be horrible and simply drive more gay players underground. It could be professional suicide. Clubs wouldn't want you to do it."
Former pro Paul Elliott, who played for Chelsea, Aston Villa, and Italian club Bari and is now special advisor to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, feels there is a momentum building just as the anti-racism movement built in the 1970's and 1980's. He knows of dozens of professionals who are gay but would never come out in the current climate.
He said: "It's a combination of fear and a lack of stakeholder engagement from key people like the PFA to ensure they are supported. That's the key thing. I have spoken to dozens of players who feel this. They are also concerned about implications professionally and socially – they have nice lifestyles."
Lucy Faulkner, the FA's well-liked head of equality and diversity, stressed the FA's new chairman, Lord Triesman, wants to tackle homophobia - as he told a meeting of Supporters Direct only a day earlier.
Faulkner was asked by the panel host, Radio 5 Live's Bob Ballard, why the FA did not show an example by laying down the law to Chelsea coach Phil Scolari. Scolari denies he is homophobic but has gone on record in the past as saying he would throw anyone out of his team if he found out they were gay.
She said: "It's a question for clubs like Chelsea as employers to make it known to employees that this is unacceptable. We would not do anything about past events but if it happened in future he could be charged with bringing the game into disrepute."
Faulkner said the FA's coaching accreditation included elements on diversity and equality and the message that all forms of intolerance are unacceptable was at the heart of the Respect Campaign – which ostensibly targets abuse of referees. And she said there are good examples of clubs, including Manchester City, Aston Villa and Brighton and Hove Albion, setting up gay supporters clubs.
Bartholomew Hall said abusive clubs need to be hit where it hurts fans and bosses most – by docking points. Faulkner said this was already within the FA's power but had not been used. Most of the panel and audience agreed with Tatchell, who wanted guilty clubs to lose points and if needs be to play to empty stands as extra punishment. He said: "It would create peer pressure. Fans around would tell abusers they were ruining it for everyone."
www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2008/oct/21/equality-gender