European Championship winner Lucy Bronze believes education is the key to diversifying social media and the wider footballing world following the Iker Casillas and Carles Puyol "I'm gay" tweet controversy.
A tweet appearing on Casillas' account read: “I hope you respect me: I’m gay," before later being deleted. Puyol, the former Barcelona defender, then replied: “It’s time to tell our story, Iker.”
The exchange between the pair led to thousands of replies - most of which were of a homophobic nature.
In the aftermath of the confusion, the two-time European Championship winner deleted his original tweet, claiming he was hacked. Both players issued apologies to the LGBTQ+ communities via statements posted on their social accounts.
But the timing of this controversy adds more noise to the conversation surrounding the Qatar World Cup which starts in just 41 days. Many LGBT+ organisations have come out to condemn the events that took place online on Sunday. They criticised the ‘homophobic jokes’ and ‘homophobic reactions that took place on Twitter.
Adelaide United’s Josh Cavallo condemned the incident, he said: "To see my role models and legends of the game make fun out of coming out and my community is beyond disrespectful."
Barcelona full-back and former Man City star, Bronze, offered her opinion on the situation during the Lionesses' press conference ahead of the Czech Republic on Tuesday evening. Bronze claimed: “Well, obviously at the beginning, no one knew it was a joke.
“But I think the reaction that has been had on social media and in general from the beginning of not knowing what it was, to thinking it was a joke and then it was hacked, the reaction to whatever it was, the reaction just shows that there still needs to be a lot more education, a lot more openness about these subjects because the reaction was not normal.
“Whether it was from social media or whether it was from the fans or people commenting, whether it was a joke, I don’t know Casillas so I don’t know the ins and outs. I just think it shows that there is still a lot of education and conversations that need to happen to make the world and social media world a better place.”
Puyol is understood to still hold a close relationship to Barcelona Women’s side and in her first season at the club, the 30-year-old states that she hasn’t crossed paths with the legendary men’s team defender.
She added: “I have not met him, so I cannot really comment. I haven’t spoken to the Spanish girls yet, so I don’t know what they are thinking and what they think about the story itself. But I’m sure it will be a conversation to be had when I return to Barcelona to get more of a perspective on the whole situation.”
