A SHOCKING 20 per cent of football fans remain “comfortable” with homophobia in the game, new research has revealed.
And of the 1,010 heterosexual football fans asked by YouGov, 30 per cent admitted they would find two men kissing at a match uncomfortable.
Fans at Tranmere where a man was arrested at the weekend for making alleged homophobic remarks to Wycombe goalkeeper Ryan Allsop
LGBT equality charity Stonewall praised Allsop after he reported the abuse during his team’s League One win
The research was carried out by Paddy Power and Gay Times after recent good work to stamp out homophobia in football – despite the incident at Tranmere on Sunday when Wycombe keeper Ryan Allsop was targeted.
Rainbow Laces and captain’s armband is one well recognised campaign.
However, there is yet to be a player come out at the top level of the men’s game in England.
And further results from the study show only 37 per cent of fans asked think the game is becoming a safer space in which players could come out.
These results suggest there is work to be done which is a sentiment shared by Gay Times CEO Tag Warner who said: “Recent years have seen real and meaningful progress in tackling discrimination towards the LGBTQ+ community among football fans – but our research shows there remains significant work to be done.
“So while football fans make the right noises by saying homophobic abuse has no place in the modern game and stress that they would like to see more out LGBTQ+ figures, it’s depressing to see that a third would find two men kissing a problem while the same proportion believe homophobia is not an issue.
“With Paddy Power we’re committed to rooting out and kicking out homophobia wherever it’s located.”
These stats come just days after a man was arrested at Tranmere for allegedly making homophobic remarks towards Allsop.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
