Arsenal have made it two wins from two Champions League games on Wednesday night with a 3-1 victory over Olympiakos at the Emirates Stadium.
Gervinho continued his recent strong goalscoring form with the opener on 42 minutes, but Kostas Mitroglou equalised on the stroke of half-time for the visitors.
Lukas Podolski put the Gunners back into the lead midway through the second 45, with Aaron Ramsey’s late strike securing all three points.
Steve Bould praised Olympiakos after the game, and was happy with the win.
“It was tough,” Bould told Sky Sports.
“They made it really tough for us and I thought they defended really well.
“We kicked the game off not too badly, but then we looked a little nervous. Maybe the result from the weekend drained us a little bit and we lost a bit of confidence, but overall it was just a fantastic result.
“They’re a good side, technically very sound and they made it really hard.
“We’ve watched tapes and we knew they were very good technically and they set the 4-1-4-1 with the big fella sat in front of the back four.
“Santi [Cazorla] couldn’t get on the ball in the first half and we tried to correct that at half-time, and I thought we improved,” he concluded.
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Arsenal top Group B after Schalke and Montpellier drew 2-2 in the other pool match.
The main thing which annoyed in the aftermath of England’s 5-0 win over San Marino was the amount of people who analysed the performance. I don’t believe for a second that how badly or brilliant you played against a semi-professional outfit will impact what happens when you face real opposition.
The joint worst team in the history of international football set out with their variation of a 10-0 formation hoping and praying to keep the scoreline respectable. While I’m not suggesting for a second the minnows had an obligation to attack the Three Lions, I don’t see the point in allowing an exercise and encouraging a game where only one team have the resources to win. The irritation is it’s a match-up everyone’s seen plenty of times before, when the slightly superior Andorra come to Wembley they are similarly restricted in the ways they can approach the game and often, rarely venture further than 30 yards from their goal in numbers.
I just don’t see the point in continuing to persist with these dreadful events, due to the population of these miniscule nations, they are never going to be at a level where they can compete with the major teams, so make them qualify in a preliminary round and against teams closer to their level to stop these pointless exercises twice every qualification round. Some minnow nations have improved Republic of Ireland travel to the Faroe Islands expecting a tough match today, but some still offer little and can’t provide a stern enough test at international level to anyone, like San Marino.
As a self-confessed football addict, there is virtually no football match I could not find a point of interest in. Whether it’s a lower-league game showcasing a young talent or a chance to see the expensively assembled League Two outfit Fleetwood Town. Nearly all football matches are going to appeal to me in some way. This England versus a team with the population of a big town fixture is a definite exception. I learn nothing more about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain because he can curl past a goalkeeper standing comically out of position. We are no closer to knowing whether Kyle Walker will emerge as the England right back for the next ten years, because the opposition are far too miserably inept to test him. Plus the San Marino goalkeeper’s recklessness and inexperience injured Theo Walcott. This is another strong case for stopping these miserable match-ups, people can get hurt. How our amateur footballers supposed to cope with players used to playing at a pact they’ve never seen before?
This game seemed to generate more of a buzz than other non-events between England and part-timers perhaps the excitement of guessing how many England should put past San Marino got people through their last day of work that week. Regardless the same people eager to sweepstake the number of goals scored, then moaned about England only winning 5-0 and not looking overly impressive against a team who set out to do nothing but a damage limitation exercise. I’ve been accused of pessimism in the past, but being upset at your team looking unimpressive in a glorified training exercise is simply ridiculous. This game didn’t teach us anything about England or San Marino and shouldn’t be taken any further than that. Those who got angered watching it perhaps need a reminder of the ease at which England swept aside Estonia a month earlier. Only to then be incapable of raising their level against real opposition in the shape of Ukraine.
If you replace these meaningless games with friendlies or even training camps, it will allow younger players to get a greater understanding of the England set up and perhaps, further push through that next generation that England so desperately need to replace the aging stars of the last decade. But welcoming them into the squad in such meaningless fixtures doesn’t benefit them or the national team. Put an end to these pointless fixtures and quickly please.
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striker Emmanuel Adebayor is a target for La Liga clubs Celta Vigo and Athletico Madrid, according to Talk Sport.
The 28-year-old striker signed a permanent deal at White Hart Lane in the summer following a successful loan spell from Manchester City last season, but has found his chances limited to just four Premier League appearances so far this season.
And it is believed the Togo international is becoming increasingly frustrated at his lack of game time under new manager Andre Villas-Boas and is hoping for a move away in January.
La Liga side Celta Vigo are rumoured to be lining up an offer to give Adebayor a new start in Spain and improve their attacking options after netting just 11 goals in their opening 10 league fixtures.
But Atletico Madrid are also thought to be keeping tabs on the striker as they look to add to their impressive start to the season and fill the possible void left by top striker Radamel Falcao, who is the subject of increased speculation of a move away from the Vicente Calderon Stadium.
Meanwhile, Tottenham are thought to be competing with Liverpool for the signing of Schalke’s Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
The 29-year-old striker, who scored against Arsenal in the Champions League last night, will be out of contract at the end of the season and Andre Villas-Boas is desperate to improve his attacking options and may see him as the perfect replacement for Adebayor.
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Newcastle are set to make a move for Argentine winger Ivan Bella, according to reports from talkSPORT.
The 23-year-old is believed to have caught the attention of the Premier League club’s scouts following a string of impressive displays for his current club Velez Sarsfield.
His mixture of pace and trickery have seen him likened to Real Madrid star Angel Di Maria, who is one of the finest talents to emerge from South America in recent years.
With Velez currently playing in the second-tier of Argentine football, it’s unlikely that they will be able to reject any approach top European clubs, which has led to speculation that a fee of £3m would be accepted.
Portuguese outfit Benfica are believed to be pole position for Bella’s signature according to reports from within the nation.
The wide-man broke into the first-team set-up as his current club during 2008 and has gone on to make over 50 appearances.
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He is not regarded a prolific goal scorer, but his vision and awareness have earned him much praise within the South American media.
Bella is yet to represent Argentina at senior level, but has made eight appearances for the U-20 team.
Long term Manchester United target Wesley Sneijder is reportedly close to leaving Inter Milan after contract negotiations with the Italian club once again have broken down.
Sir Alex Ferguson has expressed an interest in the talented Dutch midfielder on more than one occasion in recent years and it seems he won’t have a better chance at snapping up his man than in January.
“Sneijder isn’t playing because the coach (Andrea Stramaccioni) doesn’t think he’s at his best, above all psychologically,” Inter president Massimo Moratti told the Daily Mail.
“For us it’s natural to look for a way to not be forced to sell him and he has the right to not accept our offer. If it stays like that, the solution will be on the transfer market.”
Inter also released a club statement: “We’ve been negotiating with him for a while and we need to modify his contract.
“We want to give him time to think about it and so we won’t be using him for the time being.”
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Fulham and Tottenham target Dieumerci Mbokani has insisted that he is unlikely to leave Anderlecht in January, report talkSPORT.
The striker has been linked with the Premier League duo following a series of impressive displays in the Belgian league, in which he has netted 16 times already this season.
He will journey to the African Cup of Nations in the New Year, representing the DR Congo team, and believes that he’ll return to Anderlecht following the tournament, so long as a particularly tempting offer is not received:
“Unless an exceptional offer arrives in January, I will remain here until the end of the season.” He told Sporza.be.
“I am doing well at Anderlecht and I will leave soon for the African Cup of Nations.”
The 27-year-old joined his current club in 2011 from AS Monaco after an unsuccessful spell in France.
He cost a reported fee of just over £2m and cited playing alongside ex-Liverpool attacker Milan Jovanovic as a major reason behind his decision to return to Belgium.
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The 6ft. 1” forward has been widely praised for his combination of pace, power and technique and has been previously linked with a Premier League switch.
It’s unclear as to what fee he would command, but Anderlecht would likely look to make a healthy profit on their investment.
After seemingly turning a corner in the season with a few well earned victories, the last few games have made sure our feet have stayed firmly on the ground.
With every defeat comes that feeling of disappointment, and losing to Hull, despite being completely outplayed, was no exception. What was hardest to take was the blatantly obvious difference in class between the two teams. Hull don’t have the strongest team in the division, far from it, but they made us look like relegation fodder.
Understandably, this resulted in mass frustration with a section of the fan base calling for Warnock to step down. The argument here is that with the January transfer window about to open, should we really be letting him spend money when, as it stands, this will be the start of his last few months in the game.
It’s a fair point. The alternative is to get a new manager in on a longer contract and let him start building for next season, or a promotion push at worst. I’m sure if GFH-C decided to do this the majority would understand.
But is that fair to Warnock? This is the guy that stuck with us when we needed him most. Many would’ve walked away over the summer, especially after being promised money to spend only to see a deal worth £400,000 fall through due to a lack of funds.
Warnock’s style of play may not be as pleasing on the eye as some would like, but his hard working ethic has paid off on more than one occasion this season and you cant help but feel that if a few of the lower quality players can be replaced with others of a higher standard then things could change quickly.
It’s easy to look past the facts sometimes, especially in the aftermath of a defeat, but Warnock is a good manager with a good record and he knows what kind of player it takes to get out of this division. For the first time in his spell with us he’ll have the chance to bring in players that he really wants, players that could win us games against any team in the division. Of course, that doesn’t mean that his signings over the summer weren’t players that he wanted in, but you cant help but think that Luke Varney would be playing elsewhere right now had money been available for Craig Makail-Smith.
Regardless of what we all think, the buck stops with GFH-C now and they’re in control of what happens with Warnock, but considering they specifically requested that he stayed on when they took control, it doesn’t look like he’ll be going anywhere soon.
Whether that turns out to be a good or bad move, only time will tell, but with one of the most important transfer windows of our recent history about to open it makes no sense to turn on him now.
As we have done for years now we really need to ‘keep the faith’. If over the next few months we see no progression then it may well be time for Neil to step aside and let someone come in to build for the future, but the season is on a knife edge and a few quality players could make a massive difference, after all, we are only a few points off the playoffs.
2012 has been a year of change for Leeds, but we end it in a good position in the league, new owners who are ready to back the manager financially in the transfer window and a fan base that is slowly but surely reuniting.
It’s early, but I’m quietly confident that 2013 might just be our year.
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This season has been interesting to say the least.
Currently on the lookout for our 3rd manager of the season, having not sacked anyone, it would be fair to question what exactly is going on at Bloomfield Road. On the pitch, we went from absolutely sublime to utterly terrible in the first two months, and have since been stagnating somewhere in the middle. We have also seen a surface go from football pitch to quagmire and now fans, probably rightly so, are starting to get more than a little irritated.
As an outsider looking in, I’m not sure what you’d think of Blackpool at the minute. Having inexplicably lost Ian Holloway to Crystal Palace, Michael Appleton lasted only 10 weeks in the hot-seat before deciding he would rather ply his trade down the road, at the farcically managed Blackburn Rovers. Not surprisingly, Appleton’s time in charge was actually the shortest tenure of any Blackpool manager.
Since then, we lost at Charlton after a pretty dismal performance and then went out of the FA cup after losing to Fulham in extra time. We were hours away from appointing a manager before Sean O’Driscoll decided he would rather manage bottom of the league Bristol City than have a stint with Blackpool.
And now, well, who knows. We are talking to a lot of managers trying to find the right guy. Probably feeling a little vulnerable after choosing Appleton, who decided to walk out, the board are taking longer to weigh up the options and appoint a manager. However, every time we ask for permission to talk to anyone, Sky Sports say that he is going to be named out next manager and messageboards go into meltdown, writing him off before he has even picked up the phone to speak to us.
So yes, things are confusing and frustrating at the minute, but what we need to remember is that this sort of stuff can happen. It’s football, and we all know how detached from reality football is. Stuff happens, we move on and then more stuff happens. That’s football.
Most sane fans know that despite our varied shortcomings, we do things the right way at Blackpool when it comes to transfers. Same goes with managers. We try out best not to disclose information before a deal is done, we ask permission to speak to players and managers, and we pay what we consider to be what they are worth.
Unfortunately, virtually every other club doesn’t. Almost all of them will contact a player without speaking to his club, or chat to a manager before they have spoken to his chairman. Other clubs or players agents are so willing to give out information that we end up with a million “Sky Sources” stories linking every player west of Australia to Blackpool. And when it comes to money, clubs are far too willing to cave in and pay the player and agent whatever they want.
The thing with football fans is that they just want everything, and want it now. Yet, they spend countless hours down the pub moaning about how much it costs to watch football, how much players earn and how certain players aren’t worth their transfer fee. Well I’m sorry but, in my opinion, you can’t stand there and complain that football players are overpaid, and then in the next sentence say we should have offered a guy more money and he wouldn’t have gone elsewhere.
Who is in the wrong here? Is it Blackpool, and by that I mean Karl Oyston, or is it other clubs? Should we move with the modern game and start spending more money, or should we stick to our principals and not get dragged into the overspending that is so criticised nowadays? To be honest, I don’t know. I can see merit in doing both. I’m quite happy knowing that our players don’t earn ridiculous amounts of money and that they remain quite grounded. I take great pleasure in watching players turn us down to take more money elsewhere and then end up playing League 1 or 2 football. On the other hand, it is a shame when our players aren’t rewarded properly, like the team that gained promotion to the Premier League. And it would be nice to sign a player I’ve heard of who is in form and at a good stage in his career. Like I said, I’m not sure which way is the right way, but I don’t mind either.
I’d love football to be more like what we see at Blackpool, where players are paid reasonable wages (extortionate compared to the real-world) and then get performance related bonuses. I’d love to see transfer fees stay mainly in single figured millions, certainly for the majority of players. Is Daniel Sturridge worth £15 million? Of course not. I’m sure we would all like the game to be more rational, but it isn’t. Does that mean it is right?
What can’t be defended here is the lack of investment in the playing surface. Where transfer fees come down to greed, and I’m more than happy to tell players to shove it, but when it comes to the pitch, it is something which should always have investment. I don’t have a craving for a new training ground, or new seats in the ground, or a new stand, but the very basic thing that the players and staff need is a decent pitch. When you’re a kid all you needed was 4 jumpers, a ball and some grass. We have posts, we have footballs, but we have no grass.
Unfortunately, I don’t think it can be fixed this season. Relaying the pitch now would probably mean we have to have a new pitch every game. Nothing will be able to bed-in during this weather. Nonetheless, if it comes to the summer and there has been no investment in the pitch, I will happily jump on the moaning, groaning bandwagon.
My point, in all this ranting, is that I know there are lots of things wrong about our club, but there are lots of things right about it and at the end of it all, it is my club. I don’t mean it should be in my control, I mean this is the club I support.
And that is where a difference lies. Some people, the ‘fans’, believe this is their club and their opinion should carry a lot of weight. If they don’t like a manager, they should be able to get him sacked. When things start to go wrong, on or off the pitch, they boo and protest and eventually, stop turning up.
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‘Supporters’ on the other hand, support the club and the team. They discuss what is going on, get irate about it, argue about it and even shout about it, but when saturday comes, they will still be there. Supporters realise that even if a player or manager or owner is doing something wrong, they won’t be here forever, unlike them.
I think the best way to put it is that I am a football fan and a Blackpool supporter. I just hope there are more like me and that people can get past the politics of it all and remember why they started watching. Nobody ever came to a game based on the infrastructure and financial standing of a club and its owner, so why should that be a reason to stop going?
Let’s see how things turn out, enjoy the ride and support our club.
It was widely assumed that Tottenham may live to regret passing up the opportunity to add more attacking depth, particularly up front, to a side competing on two fronts down the home straight this season, but with new signing Lewis Holtby settling in well to an increasingly adaptable and versatile side, do they still require more striking reinforcements in the future?
Andre Villas-Boas’ side still remain well in the driving seat for the fourth Champions League spot this season as they hold a four-point lead on rivals Arsenal in fifth, with both Everton and Liverpool close behind, but with upcoming games against Arsene Wenger’s side at White Hart Lane plus a tough away trip to Anfield to contend with yet, it’s far from in the bag, not to mention testing ties against Chelsea, Manchester City and Everton.
Nevertheless, one of the overriding factors about the team this season has been their ability to grind out results, having won eight games this term by a solitary strike and despite having kept just seven clean sheets so far in the league, while they may not be the toughest nut to crack, they are a tough side to beat.
Of course, having a player of the quality of Gareth Bale within your ranks helps matters quite a lot, even if the hyperbole, with Sky the guiltiest party, has gone a bit too far and over the top at times. The thing is, Bale is so good on his own that he just doesn’t need all the faux hype; he’s an exceptional talent who could potentially become one of the best players in the world in time, but he’s not helped by the quite frankly silly comparisons to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo every week and a double against Newcastle and Lyon, while it does show the level of consistency needed to reach those heights, has only just started to become a regular occurrence, so let’s not put the cart before the horse.
Along with Bale, though, with Aaron Lennon on the opposite flank and Holtby settling in extremely well since moving to England six months ahead of schedule and his planned summer move, they have helped to cover up the fact that Emmanuel Adebayor hasn’t ever really got going this season and Jermain Defoe’s form has fallen off a cliff.
The England international has only ever been a player that has scored in patches and against lesser opposition, but at the start of the campaign, in an unfamiliar lone striking role that never looked particularly suited to his strengths, he did exceptionally well, but he’s scored just 10 times in 25 appearances across all competitions this season, which is a deceptively poor return considering the plaudits he was on the receiving end of just a few months ago.
Meanwhile, Adebayor has just three goals in 19 appearances this term after crucially missing the majority of pre-season trying to force through his move back to the club where he enjoyed such a successful loan spell last season. That Bale has just one league assist this campaign but 13 goals to his name only serves to highlight that his role within the side has shifted and so have his responsibilities. He’s such a good player that at the moment, even though to a degree he may be carrying the side, the burden has been shared out in a creative sense. It’s not a solution that looks a viable approach in the long-term, but between now and the end of the term, it may just be enough.
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It’s clear that the club require more depth up front, and in that sense, choosing not to strengthen from a position of strength during January was something of a gamble, but with Bale in such effective match-winning form at the moment in his dual role drifting in off the left flank, they have someone capable of covering up a notable weakness in their armoury. Holtby, Lennon and even Clint Dempsey have all contributed over the past few weeks, and even if at times the lack of a focal point to their attack can prove troublesome, they are muddling on by through a mixture of sheer force of will and dogged consistency. It’s not quite the hallmark of champions, but they appear to be getting on just fine without striking reinforcements for the time being.
Unfortunately, I believe Roy Hodgson’s tenure as England boss will always be sourly remembered, not for some rather inadequate results, but the disappointing, disgusting and embarrassing re-arrival of racism. Indeed, Hodgson’s appointment was off the back of a side story regarding the John Terry scandal, in which Fabio Capello refused to relinquish the Chelsea man of his England arm band.
Ever since, the legacy of the in-camp split, between Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole lives on, with England fans still divided over whom should and should not be included in the Three Lions set up, and reportedly resorting to derogatory chants with racial connotations to attack the Ferdinand brothers, leading the FARE organisation to report England fans to UEFA following their recent World Cup Qualifier against Motenegro.
Yet, while one form of discrimination is beginning to finally be confronted, from protests from senior Black players in the Premier League boycotting the rather limp in effect Kick It Out t-shirt campaign, to Sepp Blatter holding a meeting with Kevin Prince-Boateng and reversing his original stance of “everything in football can be settled with a handshake”, an equally as vile, atrocious and institutional type of prejudice is still being widely ignored and swept under the rug by football’s governing bodies.
[cat_link cat=”premiership” type=”list”]
Of course, I am talking about the ultimate footballing taboo – homosexuality – and the structural and entrenched homophobia that has made it such an unthinkable and rarely discussed subject. According to the 2011 UK census, 6% of citizens did not categorise themselves as straight, either being homosexual, bisexual or undecided, yet in the history of World football, there have been just a handful of sportsmen who have come out as gay, such as Justin Fashanu, Anton Hysen and Robbie Rogers.
The statistics simply don’t add up, considering there are at least 500 senior players in the Premier League alone (as there are 20 squads of 25 registered players), not to mention the development squads and academy teams, yet there is not a single homosexual footballer in the top flight, or for that matter, there is not a single Premier League footballer who would describe their sexuality in any manner other than ‘straight’. It’s clear that the problem is cultural and structural; else it would not be so widespread.
English football once had the opportunity to change itself for the better. The tragic story of Justin Fashanu is well known; a £1million footballer, reduced to nothing, and through constant heckling and abuse from fans and the British media, pushed to suicide as a price for his openness and honesty. Had the public embraced Fashanu, or at least accepted him, players today would not quite simply be scared into appearing as straight.
You get the feeling agents, family members and friends urge gay players not to reveal themselves, for fear of suffering the same fate as the former Nottingham Forrest striker. Robbie Rogers, the former Leeds and USA winger, is the most recent footballer to come out. Yet, it was not until his career was over, plighted by injury, that he finally told the truth regarding his sexuality, safe from the training ground, the football pitch and the terraces.
So why is it that there is such an issue with homosexuality? What is the source of homophobia in the English game? And can we ever truly address it in the same way racism is being addressed?
West Ham’s Matt Jarvis recently sparked controversy by posing topless for gay magazine, Attitude, in an effort to bring forward the subject of homosexuality in football. He insists that although some of his team-mates started acting bizarrely towards him, even quizzing his wife about his sexuality, he was in no way discriminated against by the rest of the squad. Although there was some polite banter, mocking Jarvis as a poser more than anything else, there was nothing untoward.
The once capped England man believes the problems lie on the terraces rather than within the clubs, and the fact that ‘Matt Jarvis gay’ is the second highest available automated search on Google upon typing in the Hammers winger’s name, a place higher than ‘Matt Jarvis Attitude’, only highlights the widespread ignorance towards the issue, and how ineffective the campaign has been.
Joey Barton however has a different view of things. The former Manchester City midfielder may have a negative reputation for some of his actions on and off the pitch, but he is one of the most intelligent and well-read footballers to have graced the Premier League. According to Barton, it is individuals, mainly coaches, managers and other footballers that hold back progress: “Individuals within the game will discriminate against people. These archaic figures think if they had a gay footballer, they would have all kinds of shenanigans going on in the dressing room. That’s not the case. As I say it’s more fool them and their lack of social awareness and intelligence.”
Barton has been so outspoken over the issue after witnessing the difficulties of his gay uncle in a working class environment, yet the Marseille midfielder was eager and determined to defend his own sexuality upon a Daily Mail article suggesting he himself should come out as homosexual, as a beacon of hope for other footballers, by threatening to sue the British newspaper.
Every step in the right direction is soon stalled. Although every player, coach, manager and governing official will openly speak out against homophobic prejudice, they would still readily distance themselves from any inclination regarding their own sexuality.
Part of the problem is the nature of football itself, or rather the nature of the supporters. Although football is simply 22 men on a football pitch, when put into social context it becomes a war of identity. Within that identity, masculinity is incredibly important. I’m sure I’m not the only football fan who has heard wolf whistles when players bend over to tie their laces, chants of “she fell over”, or songs claiming rival fans are in one way or another sexual deviants, and it’s all aimed at challenging an opponent’s masculinity, either on the pitch or on the terraces.
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The notion of masculinity is so entrenched through the working class roots of the English fan base, and is further translated to the players through the physical requirements of the game itself. To weaken the masculine identity of an opposing player or fan is seen as an opportunity to gain a psychological advantage, which is exactly why having a gay player at a club is seen as an immediate danger to his team-mates, and most importantly his own fans, as their masculine identity is collectively tied, and homosexuality comes with assumptions of weakness, sexual peculiarity and effeminacy.
Yet, to keep up the comparison of war, the British army have accepted homosexual and bisexual soldiers as a policy since 2000. We accept gay people working in our government, to have the right to marrage and to raise children, and allow them to risk their lives fighting for our country, yet there is an entrenched determination to forbid them to represent our communities and our football clubs, out of fear of our own shortcomings and inferiorities.
Just as with any form of discrimination, homophobia is based on insecurity. I would argue that football’s governing bodies must undertake serious institutional change, in the same manner as it is attempted to with racism, but I fear the efforts will fall on deaf ears, and any improvements will at most be superficial.
It has been 15 years since the death of Justin Fashanu, and yet, it seems in that time that very little has been learned. Change will not occur until one player makes it so; one of the world’s best to come out of the closet, and prove that sexuality makes no difference to who you are, whom you represent or how good you are at football.