This week Jake Daniels, the 17-year-old professional player from Blackpool came out as gay. Amongst only a tiny number of players to do so.
It begs the question, why has a 17-year-old felt comfortable to announce his sexuality? Why not an older footballer? The laws of probability say there must be at least 2-3% of professional footballers who are gay if football was reflective of society. Why haven’t we heard from more experienced footballers?
Maybe it is because Jake is from the latest in-take, the youngest generation of professional footballers. Hopefully, he has been brought up in a society that is much more accepting of LGBTQ+ people. Jake would have been at school two years ago. This tells me he has had a good support structure whether family or in education and that young people have different attitudes in 2022 than even just a few years ago.
What will happen in the future? Well, I hope he won’t receive abuse in the different stadia he will visit as a player. The Police and Stewards will need to be trained to spot and tackle homophobia at grounds but the experience and good practice gleaned from tackling other types of bigotry will no doubt aid them if it does arise.
What we do have to watch out for are the people that hide behind social media – a totally different ball game, if you pardon the pun. As long as Jake is successful, he may not have any problems but think of the awful racism that occurred after England went out of the Euros when three black players missed their penalties.
I am optimistic though and I believe the vast majority of football fans are among the more accepting and inclusive groups in general as they see their heroes come from a range of diverse backgrounds.
As a football fan all I care about is that the players at my beloved Manchester United play well and that they put their heart and soul into the job. I want them to metaphorically spill their blood, sweat and tears into making my team into serial trophy winners again. I don’t care who they are attracted to, what religion they are, what their racial background is, what gender they are. None of those things matter. They should be able to be themselves, bring their whole selves to work and to give all of themselves to the cause of making my team great again. I believe the vast majority of fans will feel the same way.
We at NCFD wish this young man all the very best and hope he has a stellar career. His skill and talent are all that matters.
-Solat Chaudhry, CEO, National Centre for Diversity
