Justin Fashanu Day

Today marks 13 years since Justin Fashanu was found dead hanging in a garage in south London.

The life of the UK's first and only openly gay footballer was turbulent to say the least.

An amazing talent on the pitch, his career was marred by a torrent of abuse and "banter" about him publicly accepting who he was.

To mark occasion and to remember him, The Justin Campaign has organised a series of events.

A tournament yesterday including the invitational Justin Fashanu Allstars reminded people that football is a game for all to enjoy. It included Aslie Pitter MBE, of Stonewall FC, who is also a patron of The Justin Campaign.

Today, we have also unveiled a new page on the website www.thejustincampaign.com which will be a tribute to Justin.

As well as information about his career, it has tributes from top football writers such as Henry Winter, LMA's Frank Clark, Peter Tatchell and his niece Amal Fashanu.

As part of ongoing work around educating people about the subject, campaign volunteers will also be going to a speak to school children about the work we do in ridding homophobia from the beautiful game.

Justin's death was a tragic end to one of the most talented footballers of a generation.

While he and others helped raise awareness about the subject, homophobia in football is still a massive taboo.

Yes progress has been made but more needs to be done before other players feel comfortable in publicly accepting who they are.

This is why we will continue to remember Justin Fashanu.

Did you know Justin? How did his news of his death affect you? Please leave tributes and comments below.

Third Justin Fashanu Cup deemed great success

Dozens of footballers united in a tournament which was truly representative of all aspects of the beautiful game.

Twelve teams from across the south of England took part in the the third annual Justin Fashanu Cup.

The invitational tournament, which was organised by the Justin Campaign, saw both men and women and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community all participating.

The event was also a protest against the decision of Fifa to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively - countries which have appalling records on homophobia.

The highlight of the weekend event in Hove was a six-a-side tournament.

Despite the wintry weather, which forced a number of teams to pull out, nine men's teams and three women's teams took part in the indoor competition.

BN Elite won the men's tournament and The Tigers won the female competition.

On the Saturday evening, all the teams gathered to take part in a table football competition and enjoyed an evening of live music.

Jason Hall, founder of the Justin Campaign said: "It was a terrific event. One which was truly representative of all people who love football.

"It was brilliant to see so many people enjoy themselves while promoting such an important issue.

"With the Fifa announcement it was also right that we brought to attention the awful human rights records of both Russia and Qatar and the effect it would have on members of the LGBT community who may want to travel to be spectators at this event."

The tournament will now become a travelling competition with the next event likely to be held in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

For more pictures stay tuned to the blog or see our Flickr page.

Is this really the message we want to be putting across to children?

Don't ask me how but our attention has been drawn to the children's TV programme Peppa Pig.

Apparently this is one of the most popular shows for pre-school children (and their stay-at-home parents) and now shown in 180 countries.

This episode, posted below in full, took on the challenge of washing a dirty white football shirt.



When a red dress ends up in the machine, it turns the rest of the clothes pink.

The dialogue is a clear indication of the simple attitudes towards football.

"Pink is not a very good colour for a football shirt", says Mummy Pig.

Why not? - take a quick look at the kit of the Justin Fashanu Allstars and tell me that does not belong on the football field.

I'm sure fans of Everton and Palermo agree with us.

But it gets worse.

When the father returns home he is handed the shirt and says: "That's not mine, that is one of mummy's dresses."

Sure this is a children's TV show aimed at the mass market and trying to get across simple messages about how the world works.

But have we not outgrown these traditional outdated dividing lines between the sexes which is more akin to the 1950s?

If the above messages are put in front of children at a young age, they very quickly become embedded as fact.

This makes change all the more difficult in the long run.