Waking up to LGBT issues?

Think back twenty, ten, even five years ago and homophobia in football was not something that was talked about, never mind tackled head on.

Yet in recent days there has been two extremely positive signs that the footballing world in the UK at least is waking up to the challenge of ensuring there is true equality in the game.

First there is the news that the Professional Footballers' Association has sent posters to all 92 league clubs which the media says is an attempt to reassure any gay footballers they have the support of their teammates.

The poster shows two shirts in a locker room – one with No 7 Gay and the other with No 11 Straight – written on it, with the words ‘When you are part of a team you are never on your own – we are all winners. Football is committed to tackling homophobia’.

The PFA's head of equalities Simone Pound told the Mail on Sunday: "We are working hard to tackle homophobia and it is something everyone has a responsibility to address.

"We want the authorities, clubs and fans to create a 'so what?' culture around being gay in football. As the players' union, we consider it a vital matter. There has been a step forward recently and football is taking homophobia seriously."

In response a Justin Campaign spokesman said: "We welcome the actions of the PFA. This is a really positive step in the tackling the last taboo in football.

"Football players' look for leadership, advice and guidance from their union. This move, which on paper is only an A4 poster, is in fact a big message, not only to any gay professional players, but to their colleagues and friends that homophobic behaviour is discriminatory and wrong.

"It is only with such strong leadership from those in charge of professional football that true equality will be established."

This announcement comes as BBC3 will show a documentary called Britain's Gay Footballers at 9pm tomorrow (Monday).

It will feature Amal Fashanu, Justin's niece and a supporter of the campaign, interviewing, among others, PR guru Max Clifford and QPR captain Joey Barton.

For more read http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16722196.

With such publicity it is surely a sign that the work the campaign and others are doing is finally having some impact at the very top levels and among fans, which can only be good for the beautiful game.

BBC3 to air Britain's Gay Footballers

Good news.

It has been confirmed that BBC 3 will show a documentary called Britain's Gay Footballers. So set the Sky+ box or video recorder and put January 30 at 9pm in the diary.

The programme will be presented by Amal Fashanu, the niece of Justin who, as most of you will be aware, the campaign is named after, and who is involved with our work.

We have also been told that QPR's Joey Barton and PR guru Max Clifford will feature while the cameras will go to Millwall FC for a match, presumably to see if homophobia exists in a footballing environment.

It will be interesting to see what path the programme follows. Obviously any highlighting of the issue is extremely welcomed. But the hope is that the programme does not trivialise the issue as other documentaries on discriminatory subjects, not just in sport, have in recent years.

We shall have to wait and see.

Don't forget Women's World Cup

The following is a blogpost from Lindsay Eanet, a Justin Campaign officer based in Liverpool and massive fan of both men's and women's football.

Hey you! Yes, you! Did you know there’s a whole other World Cup that starts a week from Sunday?

Yes, the FIFA Women’s World Cup starts on June 26!

It’s a thing that is happening, and you should watch it because, like its male counterpart, it will be full of highly skilled, impassioned play that reminds you all about what ‘The Beautiful Game’ should be about.

Maybe it’s just in the US and the UK, but the lack of international media and fan attention that seems to be surrounding the Women’s World Cup (minus the Playboy spread in which members of the German national team participated) is disappointing, although thoroughly unsurprising.

Maybe it’s just bad timing, with men’s league play just ending, Euro qualifiers on the horizon and Olympic hype overwhelming all sports coverage whether we like it or not.

Or maybe it’s the systemic inequity of women’s sports, the fact that fewer resources and advertising revenue will inevitably go to the competition than the male counterpart.

Usually, when women’s football makes the headlines at all, the focus, sadly, is more on scandal and salaciousness than success and statistics.

My fellow American football fans probably remember Brandi Chastain triumphantly ripping her shirt off after her winning goal in the 1999 Women’s World Cup more than the goal or the victory themselves.

As women’s football came to the forefront during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, all eyes were on German stars Inka Grings and Linda Bresonik for their love triangle with male coach Holger Fachs as opposed to their skills on the field.

But three years have passed and progress, although small, has been made —
on the FIFA Women’s World Cup official website, Grings is being touted as one of the stars of this year’s competition and the driving force behind the home country’s squad.

And she has the stats to back it up: Grings has won the Golden Boot in the Bundesliga six times and has been named German Female Footballer of the Year three times.

Much like Mia Hamm, Sissi and Hanna Ljungberg did briefly in the years following the tournament’s inception, hopefully Grings and her contemporaries, like Brazil’s Marta and England’s Kelly Smith, can turn the focus away from the ugliness of scandal and hypersexualization and towards the beauty and magic of the game we know and love itself.

England’s first match takes place on June 27 against Mexico at 6pm CET in Wolfsburg.

For those of us who lack the luxury of digital cable, BBC Sport Online will be streaming the matches. Or, host a watch party!

Watch parties are fun, and so is supporting England’s awesome female athletes.

Football for all?

Fifa president Sepp Blatter's philosophy is clearly emblazoned across the footballing authority's website.

"Football for all; all for football".

Strange then that such a media-savvy head of a multimillion pound industry should make a mockery of the gay rights issue to a room full of reporters.

Blatter joked that gay people should simply "refrain from any sexual activities" during the Qatar 2022 World Cup so as to avoid draconian punishments.

His comments have since been widely reported and Blatter has rightly spent the last few days defending his misguided and downright offensive comments to the world's media.

It is yet further evidence that leadership on the subject is not going to come from world football's governing body.

Fifa has long come under fire as being an authority with more security guards than common sense.

It makes most of its decisions behind closed doors in the glamorous surroundings of Geneva and, as the BBC Panorama documentary proved recently, any challenge to its hierarchy is regarded as blasphemous.

It is a strange situation for Blatter to be in, given that he is more used to blowing his own trumpet.

The reason the much-more impressive and practical bids from England and Australia were overlooked for 2018 and 2022 respectively was due to his vision of a "global game".

Surely it would be more fitting for a global game to promote equality rather than alienating tens of thousands of fans and players who may feel they are being driven away from the sport they love.

We have already said that a boycott of Qatar 2022 is not the answer.

But, would you feel comfortable travelling to a country where your sexuality could see be publicly beaten or thrown in prison?

Now is the time for us to highlight these issues - write a letter, contact your local decision makers, get involved with the Justin Campaign - all these things can help make a difference and hopefully reclaim football from the authorities who quite clearly do not promote the ethos "football for all".