max clifford

“I’ve had two high-profile Premier League football clients in the past five years who’ve been gay or bisexual and my advice has been not to make that public”

SOUNDBITES — “Do I think that’s right? Of course not. It’s a very sad state of affairs. But it’s a fact that homophobia in football is as strong now as it was 10 years ago. If you’d asked me in 2000 whether I thought we’d have a famous, openly gay footballer by 2010 I would have said yes. You look across society and see openly gay people in music, movies, television, politics, the clergy, and it’s not a problem, nor in many sports. It’s not that footballers are homophobic but the fans can be vicious. … I’ve had two high-profile Premier League football clients in the past five years who’ve been gay or bisexual and my advice has been not to make that public. For a top player to come out, I would envisage they’d be a hard man, with an established reputation, and perhaps a year or two at most left in the game, so if coming out brought too much hardship, it wouldn’t matter so much professionally.” —British PR guru Max Clifford, advising gay pro footballers (i.e. soccer players, to ya yankees) to stay in the closet, a recommendation that arrives on the heels of rugby star Gareth Thomas coming out (via)

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