A Salford Football Chairman has criticized as Tweets deemed ‘homophobic’ by two prominent European footballers.
On Sunday afternoon, Spanish goalkeeper, Iker Casillas, tweeted: “Espero que me respeten: soy gay” (“I hope you will respect me: I’m gay”), shortly followed by Carlos Puyol replying: “It’s time to tell our story, Iker,” a kiss emoji at the end. The Tweet has caused controversy as the two used the coming out as an alleged joke.
Salford resident, James Cole, is Chairman of Village Manchester FC. He believes the ‘joke’ affected his community in a sport that already struggles with a lack of representation. He said: “The main effect of the tweet on the gay footballing community was a feeling of ‘not this again’
“Even though we’ve got (Blackpool footballer) Jake Daniels coming out earlier this year, we’re not where we fully need to be… He knows there are gay footballers but still finds it amusing to make jokes about being gay. It was just really thoughtless.
“It’s disappointing, more than anything else”
Albert Park’s ‘Weatherboys FC’ is home to two members of the LGBT community, Lars Fellows and Matthew Jennings.
Fellows said: “It’s really disappointing to see a world class player like Casillas tweet something like that, like it’s a joke.
“Being gay isn’t a joke. It adds to the stigma of gay people, and their belonging in sport.
“Especially on Twitter there was such a homophobic reaction to it, it just feels like another massive step backwards.”
But after a couple of days of frustration for the LGBT community, Fellows’ teammate, Matthew Jennings, spoke about what it means for gay people to be involved in such a welcoming sport environment
“I was always a Rugby player before the Weatherboys, but I’ve loved playing football,” said Matthew. “We’re all so inclusive. We have people of all different backgrounds and mindsets, and they’ve all learned and benefitted from being around gay people.
“I reckon it’d be a lot more inspiring to young men and women who haven’t come out to see someone in such a stereotypically ‘straight environment accepting who they are… knowing what some fans in England are like.”
It’s not just the sports community who feel disappointed by the pair’s tweets. Ben Hodge spoke on behalf of the LGBT society at the University of Salford about his views on the exchange.
“It’s a shame that people are still seeing ‘coming out’ as a joke,” he said. “There’s a lot of LGBT people, young and old, who, when they come out face a lot of abuse, so it’s an issue that shouldn’t really be joked about.”
Despite the tweets, James Cole still remains hopeful that no matter who jokes about it, topflight football will produce a greater representation of the gay community in the coming years. He said: “It would be amazing, and I really do think it’s coming over the next year or so. We’re definitely at that point”
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