Homosexuality in association football
[9] In October 2021,[10] A-League Men player Josh Cavallo became the first openly gay active top flight footballer in the world.
When Richarlyson undertook legal action, the complaint was thrown out by the judge, who stated "football was a virile masculine sport and not a homosexual one.
[17] Jamerson Michel da Costa, nicknamed Messi, is the first Brazilian footballer who came out as homosexual while pursuing his professional career, in September 2010.
[24] In 2024, the minor league football player Polidoro Júnior, famous for affairs with Brazilian celebrities, claimed to have had a relationship with Pabllo Vittar.
[27][28] In 2019, Barbora Votíková, a Paris Saint-Germain FC and Czech Republic women's national football team player, came out as gay.
[29] In February 2023, Sparta Prague and Czech Republic national team midfielder Jakub Jankto came out as gay, the first active men's international player to do so.
[40] In the morning of 3 May 1998, he was found hanged in a deserted lock-up garage he had broken into, in Shoreditch, London, after visiting Chariots Roman Spa, a local gay sauna.
[43][44][45][46] In November 2017, Pink News credited David Haigh along with Robbie Rogers and Thomas Hitzlsperger with paving the way for LGBT players and managers in football.
[71] The FA said that they would charge the clubs whose fans had targeted Chelsea,[72] with the chant in question having been defined as a homophobic slur by the Crown Prosecution Service in January 2022.
[78] Heterosexual players, such as Sol Campbell,[79] Ryan Allsop,[80] Billy Gilmour[81] and Conor Gallagher[82] have been the victim of homophobic abuse by fans.
[97] Former Leeds United player Robbie Rogers, who was one of the first male professional footballers to come out as gay, launched his 'Beyond It' anti-discrimination charity with David Haigh at the club.
[103] The club ran into controversy in 2009, however, when an amateur side Creteil Bebel refused to play them due to the "principles" of Paris Foot Gay.
[105] The issue returned to the spotlight in 2010 when amateur FC Chooz refused to register Yoann Lemaire, who had been with the club for 14 years, due to him being gay as they claimed it might lead to "trouble" with his teammates.
[109] In May 2022, Idrissa Gueye was not included in the PSG team sheet for what manager Mauricio Pochettino revealed to be "personal reasons", and not an injury.
[110] This brought the media spotlight on Gueye; RMC Sport reported that he had refused to play in the match due to PSG's shirts featuring the rainbow flag in support of the LGBT movement, an initiative taken by Ligue 1 for the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
[113] For his controversial absence against Montpellier, Gueye received backlash and calls for sanctions from Rouge Direct, an organization against homophobia,[114] and île-de-France politician Valérie Pécresse, among others.
His show of support for gay rights led to protests outside the Georgian Football Federation's headquarters demanding his removal from the national team, at which eight people were arrested.
The historian Werner Skrentny has said at the time Bonn was playing, journalists had little interest in the private lives of footballers and it would have been unthinkable for him to come out.
[124] Marcus Urban, born 1971, played with the East Germany national youth football team and as an amateur in the second division club Rot-Weiß Erfurt.
[137] On 15 June 2021, Hungary played their opening match against Portugal at the delayed UEFA Euro 2020 tournament, with Hungarian fans allegedly displaying homophobic banners.
[145] In June 2021 the Mexican Football Federation were punished by FIFA for alleged homophobic chants from their fans during the 2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship.
[151] In June 2015, a Bærum SK player was given a straight red card for calling his Sandnes Ulf opponent "gay" during a 1. divisjon match.
[155][156] In July 2023 English player Jordan Henderson, known for his support of LGBT rights, was criticised for signing for a Saudi Arabian club.
[170] In 1934, Ana María Martínez Sagi, partner of writer Elisabeth Mulder, became a Director of FC Barcelona, the first woman to do so in Spanish football's history.
[173] Atlético Madrid football player Rafael Rodríguez Rapún (1912–1937) was poet Federico García Lorca's partner in life.
The Trabzon Board of Referees and the Turkish Football Association decided that he was not eligible for the role as he was previously excused from the military service for being homosexual.
[183] One of Turkey's famous football commentators, Erman Toroğlu, argued that Dinçdağ should not be given his referee position back due to the professional reasons such as the possibility for making wrong decisions related to his homosexuality.
Although Dilmen said that he does not approve the discrimination against the LGBT people in the Turkish football, on contrary, he argued that he would still disinherit his own kid for being gay once he was reminded about a negative comment he made during an interview in 1989.
[187] Former MLS player David Testo, having been released by Montreal Impact the previous month, affirmed he was gay in an interview on the French Canadian division of Radio Canada that was published on 10 November 2011.
[188] On 15 February 2013, midfielder Robbie Rogers, who had been released by Leeds United a few weeks earlier, came out after announcing his retirement from professional football.
