THE decision by the 17-year-old Blackpool FC player Jake Daniels to come out publicly about his homosexuality should be a watershed moment for men’s football throughout the UK and internationally. In the year 2022, it should not be news that a professional footballer shares his sexual orientation with hundreds of millions of other men around the world.
Yet, given that Daniels is only the second current, male professional footballer to come out as gay – alongside Australian A-League player Josh Cavallo of Adelaide United (who came out in October of last year) – it is clear that the men’s game continues to have a massive problem with homophobia. Indeed, world football’s governing body, Fifa, seems dedicated to proving the old adage that “a fish rots from the head” where homophobia is concerned.
