While society has moved on, the attitude to homosexuality in football is pretty much unchanged. AFAIK, there's never been a single openly gay Premier League footballer. There have been about 3,200 players in the EPL in the past 20 years. Assume 1.5% of people chosen at random to be gay (low estimate). The odds of picking that many random people and not finding one of them to be gay is 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Even just looking at current squads, let's say 20 squads of 25 players, so 500 on the books. The odds of not a single on of them being gay is 1 in 1,913. Very unlikely indeed. The conclusion I draw is that gay footballers are still keeping quiet about it. This guy's a start, though: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...orpes-town-fear-public-backlash-a8117671.html Vin
I suspect there is no problem these days within teams....after all they would guess without being told....the problem is with the fans. Not the huge majority..how many of us haven't got gay friends, family members or acquaintances after all.....or are gay for that matter....but just the Neanderthals (with apologies to real Neanderthals) who are just looking for any difference they can use as a weapon to attack opposition players with. Players want to concentrate on the game, so if they come out that's fine and they should feel free to do so, but I can also see that most won't want to....and that is their right as well.
The thing that I don't really get is why does anyone need to come out? You don't come and out and say 'hey I'm straight'. I'm interested in the football, what gender you're attracted to is inconsequential.
I think this is true about gender, race etc too, of course they can't just hide who they are. I know I'm just a millenial metro snowflake but it's the thing that puts me off football more than anything else now. Ryan Atkin, a FL ref, did a really good interview earlier this year. http://www.skysports.com/football/n...g-openly-gay-in-football-should-hold-no-fears And there's our own Hugo. So that's something.
A quick google says 1 in 50 are not heterosexual. The law of averages then means that there is at least one homosexual footballer in every 2 PL teams (assuming 25 player squads). So that means 10 in the PL. Even if the stats are a little out, it is weird that there is no openly gay footballer in the PL. It does go to show that it is still being hidden - like others I believe that is not from within the club, but from the fans - as Fran I think said the Neanderthals that 'follow' football are holding it back.
Not that it matters, but I wouldn't be surprised if the number of gay people in male football is lower than normal because of a reluctance to get involved in an area not gay-friendly....but I suspect that the % is higher than average in female football because it is more gay-friendly. Unless you have sex on the pitch I can't see how it matters. .
I was thinking this and didn't know if it would come across as really stereotypical or not. If the stat is 1 in 50 is gay, I would guess that in some industries (for men anyway) it is higher than that, and others lower. Because sport in the past has been pretty homophobic this may have put off gay people playing sport at younger ages and therefore getting to the level where they could turn pro.
my homemade christmas puddings are steaming nicely on the stove (my grandmothers 1930s recipe). About to make the mincemeat for the mince pies. I will admit it was easier when I didn't live 2000 miles from a Sainsburys!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-42435613 Anyone else think this was a real missed opportunity at a great headline? So near to the Cadbury's factory too
Could be worse Fats, could be a bout of gout in your tail end. (I've had gout myself, so not making light of it really)
On a lighter note, my old man had surgery for his colon cancer today. Surgeon is pretty optimistic, and likely no need for any chemo so hopefully I'll get a few more years with the old bugger yet. He should be home for Christmas which is great news.
