Jake Daniels
(Picture: Sky Sports)Jake Daniels’s decision to come out as the first openly gay male footballer in the UK has the potential to change not just the teenager’s life but the game as a whole.
Daniels’ remarkable courage in ending decades of silence is a landmark moment for football, hopefully paving the way for more players to feel comfortable enough to reveal their true selves.
The Blackpool forward deserves enormous praise for his bravery — not least because he is just 17 — and he will go down as a trailblazer, sure to be a point of reference for any peers who feel able to follow in his footsteps.
Daniels must have an impressive support network and his club, Championship side Blackpool, also deserve credit for creating an environment where the teenager felt comfortable in coming out. Praise also goes to Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ charity which advised Daniels.
Plainly, however, football still has a huge way to go become a fully welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ individuals — in all areas of the game — and the fact that Daniels said he had delayed coming out in order to pursue a career as a professional and considered waiting until after he had retired shows the scale of the challenge still ahead.
The game’s job is to create an environment where no player is given pause for thought.
As well as breaking the taboo, the wider significance of Daniels’ decision could, in time, be huge. More openly gay players would naturally make it harder for the game to continue collaborating with countries and regimes where LGBTQ+ people are oppressed, but the looming Qatar World Cup show that this remains a depressingly distant reality.
Even last summer’s European Championship was marred by UEFA’s reluctance to allow the rainbow flag to be displayed at certain venues.
As a football reporter, it is also clear to me that the issues of sexuality and related discrimination need to become a bigger part of the everyday conversation in the game. No player would bat an eyelid if questioned about racism, while racial discrimination is no longer tolerated in the vast majority of dressing rooms.
By contrast, homophobia is barely ever mentioned and still feels a taboo subject, despite its prevalence on the terraces and in the macho environment of the dressing room. Every player and manager is likely to know someone who is LGBTQ+ so there is no reason sexuality should not, in time, be discussed and celebrated in much the same way as racial diversity. It is up to the game’s authorities, like the Premier League and UEFA, as well as clubs, to do more to open up these conversations.
And it is important to say, too, that it is not up to Daniels. He may want to use his platform and status as a trailblazer to continue speaking out or he may not.
Either way, he should be left alone and allowed to fulfil his obvious promise as a player, while the wider game takes lessons and inspiration from his courage.
