Group of footballers set to come out as gay on the same day next month

Well, good for them, but I feel like I've been reading about this forever.

I'll be happy for them when it actually happens.

R1 Yeah same. And then it's hard to know if it was genuinely planned, but then the players backed out of it, or if it was nonsense to begin with.

I've always said it'd be better for a group to come out after the season, though. That way it isn't just one player getting all the flak and also by the time the new season starts the dust will have settled.

There was a rumour two of the players were in a relationship, which was another reason why they wanted to go public. Must suck having to hide a long term partner.

Soccer not the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys? Man I would have lost money.

I am a bit surprised that homophobia would be prevalent in Germany enough that fans would be angry. Human rights have a long way to go. There’s really no reason for fans to be angry. “Why do you have to make it about politics” is code for I don’t want to see gay people I want to live by the 1800s values.

R4 To be honest, the comments I read were on a Facebook article about this story. So they came from all over; particularly the UK where football is incredibly popular. There were also some homophobic remarks from Africa, but that's probably less surprising when you look at some the laws there, especially in countries like Uganda.

But yeah, there were mild protestations from people who were keen to stress they weren't homophobic but that they "don't care who a player sleeps with". Yet if that were true, they'd shrug their shoulders and move onto the next story without commenting. The fact is they DO care. And some of the reasons are likely to be quite pathetic. I think some of them worry about their team getting homophobic chants towards them if one of the gay players ended up playing for a team they support.

I can genuinely see some of them thinking things like: "If one of these gay players is on our team, will people think I'm gay for supporting that team?!"

In the history of sports no one , but a Queen with a sense of humor , has ever said if there is a gay on the team I favor people will think I am gay.

"A group of professional footballers in Germany are planning on coming as gay..."

There's a difference in how you come when you're gay vs. when you're straight?

R6 You mustn't have spent much time around knuckle draggers, then. That's good for you, though.

R7 Heh. In my defence, I copied that text from the linked article, so it's their mistake not mine.

R6

So you think the “I must be gay too” scenes from In and Out is a real thing?

See I bet you are just making that up shit and have never heard a homophobe football fan, other than maybe Cowboy fans , that would seriously say they were afraid of pf becoming gay because some gay defender was drafted.

Even most likely in Texas people are not that stupid

No one cares about this fictional article. No one cares about gays.

Football is very popular in Europe, and popular sports attract low IQ trash. And yes, I include players too, most of them are basically functionnal idiots.

Uneducated low IQ trash tends to be homophobic, r4. And that trash is not afraid to be vocal about it anymore.

How could you see all that hot athlete nudity and not turn at least bi?

Gay is great

Well then the enlightened NFL. Gay players are just not big news when they come out or are drafted. Some might suggest that is the Taylor Swift effect but it goes way back before The Great One.

R9 I was being slightly tongue in cheek. It's more that some fans wouldn't want to be seen as sympathetic or accepting towards a gay player on their team for fear of how it would make them look.

I'm from the UK so I know little about Texas. I was talking more about UK/European football with its culture of chanting, particularly homophobic chanting.

Most US high school newspapers have bigger circulations than the Peiner Allgemeine Zeitung.

It could well be false, but it doesn't really matter if it is. I was talking about the reaction to it, which would be the same regardless of whether the story ends up being true.

I've spent a fair amount of time in Peine, good for them

This will happen half past never.

Even the DailyMail picked up the story

Not to defend nasty chanting at players inc anti gay comments but I bet most of the time these homophobes are directing their comments at opposing players.

I bet they are not sitting in their own fan section yelling homophobic slurs at their own gay players.

Sports esp soccer is the great equalizer and consistent. My side is great. Your side is full of cunts fags and retards.

R7 They could come out as bi

R21 Yes I agree the chants are directed at the opposing team's players but I don't think it makes a difference. Homophobia is wrong regardless of its source.

I could also accept that *some* people who say homophobic chants actually aren't homophobic towards people they know in their every day lives, but it still gives the impression that it's okay to be homophobic.

I've got first hand experience of it, because when I came out, a friend of mine was immediately apologetic for all the gay jokes and jibes he'd said before I came out. He really wanted to get across that he had no issue with me actually being gay, and that the jokes and digs were just something to say as a way of 'friendly' mocking. He never says any of that stuff now, though. At least not in front of me haha.

R23

You should hear how they compare opposing male players to woman or young girls or mentally ill people..

Golf though sees none of this. Baseball sees little of this. Lacrosse as well. Stick to sports with a higher class of fan.

We live in a world where it’s perfectly ok for me to call those I disagree with Nazis and we do that every single day on DL.

In fact I have never seen so many vile comments aimed at others as I have seen at DL. It’s one of the things that makes DL interesting the hate , the anger, and the terrible hurtful words we assign to those we don’t agree with.

Thanks, but I'm waiting for a Messi-level gay player to come out.

If we want to normalize being gay why are broad public announcements even necessary? Just live your everyday life openly.

Soccer players? yawn. If only it could be rugby players.

I seem to recall the same story being floated years ago about a bunch of NFL players who were going to do it.

This will end in tears.

And pogroms.

R26 I think you're being naive if you think a professional football player could suddenly start being openly gay with no attention or backlash.

It'd be great if they could, but it just wouldn't happen.

R28 Yes, I remember that story, too.

Or shall I call it a fairytale (no pun intended)?

I think this story is going to be a huge letdown - probably at least a couple of players will come out, but they will likely be low-tier nobodies or people on the cusp of retirement/recently retired. I don't understand hyping this for so long ahead of time, since it just seems designed to give players cold feet.

A Messi-level coming out would be epic, but seems to have no chance of happening any time soon. The venom that comes from the third world garbage dumps at even the HINT of gay soccer players is something to behold. I don't think I'd have the guts to stand up to it.

R32 I suppose it's possible it wasn't meant to be leaked to the press this early. If it's real, it would take a bit of planning and it's not surprising they'd want to wait till after the season was finished to stop it being disruptive to the game.

I agree it's more likely to be lower tier footballers, but that probably needs to happen before a major player were to come out. The lower tier players would be almost guinea pigs to test the waters but also, the more times it happens, the less negative attention it should get. So it could reach the point where a major player wouldn't get a massive backlash. At least, that's the hope.

R26 the whole point is they can't just 'live their lives openly'.

If they were seen out with a boyfriend showing affection, the press would pick up on it, and report it and/or demand a statement from the player.

Didn’t they watch Ted Lasso?

R34 It would be quite interesting if a football player did just start regularly going out with their same sex partner publicly without coming out. As you say, the press would soon pick up on it and would write lots of "football player seen getting cosy with MALE 'friend" at restaurant" type headlines and there'd be a lot of commentary online about it.

This would then prove that many people do care and that coming out is technically necessary because if not, there will be endless speculation and discussion.

R34 celebs, players and organization could opt to let people use their grey matter and simply figure it out for themselves.

R37 the media doesn't allow people to 'figure it out for themselves'. I swear some of you live in lala land.

R38 Yeah I'd say even non-celebs can get similar treatment, though obviously on a much smaller scale. I've known people gossip about acquaintances being gay based on things they've said, or a friend on social media who might be more than a friend, etc.

Many bored people thrive off gossiping about others and being gay is still something many people find noteworthy enough to make a big deal about. If they do it for friends, they'll do it on a bigger scale for footballers, given how rare it is for them to be out.

[quote] coming out is technically necessary because if not, there will be endless speculation and discussion.

So, what?

No one is required to publicly comment on their private life.

R40 Agreed, but nor should someone feel obliged to never comment on their private life for fear of getting abuse for it.

If we lived in a homophobia free world, there would almost certainly be some out gay footballers at top levels, which means the fact there aren't any now is due to how they fear they'll be treated rather than because they want to stay private.

Gay is as boring as straight. No one cares. It’s all about trannys now.

We'll see what actually happens on Friday (and hey, miracles CAN happen), but unsurprisingly this whole story looks like utter bullshit. No decent athlete in his right mind is going to hype coming out weeks ahead of time - the pressure is just too much to handle. It will come out of the blue, like Nassib's did.

This will never happen.

Yeah when a date was given, it always felt like a lie. If something like this was in the works, it wouldn't be signalled so far in advance. There'd be a press release maybe a day ahead and that would likely have an embargo on it.

I think gay footballers fall into two camps:

1 - Those who will never come out for fear of abuse and not wanting the attention

2 - Those who've considered coming out but have been advised by their club not to

There's still a big stigma surrounding it, especially in football which is historically macho and narrow minded.

Bullshit, as suspected.

I assume they're all back in the kleiderschrank, by now.

Come out! Come out! Wherever you are.

It's after 9pm on Germany. As suspected, it was a load of crap!