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England’s Soccer League Chief Wants ‘Brave’ Players To Come Out, But He ‘Can’t Drag Them’ From The Closet

People say there must be homosexuals in football because of the huge numbers. I’ve raised it time and time again with my management staff. They tell me: ‘Gordon, we can’t drag them out of the closet, say here he is, he’s homosexual, we are going to protect him and he’s proud of it’. If he gets abuse, he’ll say, ‘I was better where I was’. While we have made massive improvement in crowd behaviour, it would still be a very, very brave move for a player to come out. If anybody comes out it is more acceptable in fashion or entertainment, but not in football because it’s a macho world. It upsets me when Max Clifford says, ‘They [gay footballers] have come to me, and I’ve told them not to go public, the time’s not right’.

—Gordon Taylor, head of the United Kingdom’s Professional Footballer’s Association, insists the league will support any gay players who come out, but first they have to come out [via]

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