Salford’s LGBT football community have expressed their anger at the World Cup being staged in Qatar.
Amateur footballer Alex Yang said: “Even though I haven’t attended a men’s football game in real life, the idea that I just can’t, because it would be a threat to my life – that definitely does hurt a bit.”
Yang believes that there is a lack of visibility in the football fan base. They said: “Maybe six months ago I entered this queer football world, and I’ve seen so many queer football fans who love the game, who watch it religiously, and play it religiously. But you don’t see that side in media, or just like general discourse, you don’t hear about that at all.”
“The World Cup is like a very, very political thing. Even though it’s about football because it’s such a world spectacle about two billion people watch it, so a quarter of the planet watch at the same time. It’s obviously such a political thing.
“And it can’t be a bad thing that you’re highlighting the kind of issues they have with homosexuality and gender, and you’re also promoting queerness in a good way and stuff like that, I think that can only be a good thing, even if it’s a very political thing.”
In May 1998, during the world’s biggest sports competition, the World Cup, England hopeful Justin Fashanu committed suicide. This came after eight years out the closet, being subjected to insults from his own training staff, and being a scapegoat for fans and other professionals at his club, Nottingham Forest.
Campaigners argue not much has been done since to enable a safe space in men’s football internationally. On the other hand, the rise in popularity in the women’s game has created a safe space for LGBTQ+ fans and female professionals.
Beth Barnes is a co-founder of the Association Football (AF) League. She said: “My co-founder Helen runs Manchester Laces and they were having some issues with the FA letting transgender players play in the FA Sunday League [women’s Sunday League].
“So Helen thought, ‘screw it, let’s make our own league, let’s make sure that these people have somewhere to play with no hoops to jump through.’ No one judging, no questions asked or somewhere where they’re free and safe to play.”
Barnes, 25, also runs the AF League which is Manchester’s first and only fully inclusive league for women, transgender and non-binary individuals. Beth also plays as a defender for Manchester Laces and Scouting for Goals.
She followed: “Then I’ve come along as well to help and started the North Manchester League, with six teams, who all just want somewhere safe, fun, relaxed, casual and friendly, to get a bit competitive and play the game.”
With safer spaces for queer football fans opening up for football to be played in, the same can’t be said for those that want to go and watch their teams in person at stadiums.
View this post on Instagram
Barnes has attended top-flight football games, and hasn’t had the best experiences. “I’ve been to a couple of Premier League games, and the atmosphere there was just aggressive. It’s just lots of men from one team, swearing, gesturing, threatening men from other teams. And it’s not like a very comfortable environment.”
England and Wales both made it to the 2022 World Cup. The teams, both governed by the FA, agreed to have their captains wear One Love arm bands, which are decorated with the pride flag. With less than 24 hours to go before kick-off for England’s opening fixture, FIFA threatened yellow cards to any player who sports the band on the pitch. Both teams soon after announced that their captains would no longer wear those bands. England captain, Harry Kane, opted for a ‘No Discrimination’ armband instead.
Barnes said: “I think the one of armbands is themselves anyway, it was such a small gesture, and that FIFA couldn’t even let that tiny, tiny gesture happen. It’s kind of ridiculous. And I think that like the bullying and threats, they basically made to the point where the players is unacceptable.
“We all know, it’s not a uniform issue likely stated, like they’ve had since September to sort that out. It was it’s actually just an outright lack of support for LGBTQ plus fans, I’d say, and potentially in an effort to appease Qatar.”
“I think that it could be potentially easy to blame the players, the captains, but we definitely shouldn’t, because I think they were put into an impossible position where it’s like, they have this thing that they want to stand up for and believe in.
“But at the same time, not being played at the World Cup would let their teams down the nation down, and they would probably themselves be subject to a lot of abuse if they made that decision. I think really the responsibility is with FIFA.”
In response to the situation, Matilda Johnson from Salford Pride said: “Every piece of the puzzle, every part of the chain is corrupt. We have let the world cup get to this point now where it is being held in Qatar where people aren’t respecting queer rights. To think you would even allow it to go ahead in a country where you could die for being queer.”
For support or to learn more, Switchboard is an LGBT+ helpline (0300 330 0630), and Stonewall is an LGBT UK based charity which can be found at Stonewall website.
Recent Comments