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The likes of Clyde Best, Cyrille Regis and Viv Anderson who had “Get back on your jam jar” chants and monkey grunts thrown at them by entire sections of grounds on a weekly basis.
Which is why FA chairman Greg Clarke may be on to something as he tries to break what some people are calling sport’s last taboo — the fact that not one single gay footballer in the English professional game feels ready to declare his sexuality for fear of the backlash.
Clarke says he has recently spoken to 15 gay sportspeople (including footballers) to ask their advice, and concluded that, if a number of top-level players wanted to come out, it might be a good idea to do so en masse, on the same day .
The reaction thus far is mainly positive (although many have winced at Clarke’s Disneyesque rationale for making it the opening day of the season when “the crowds are happy and the sun is shining”).
Veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell backs a collective coming out, as does Europe’s first openly gay footballer Anton Hysen, who said : “It’s insulting to supporters in England to suggest that they’re not ready to support a gay footballer.”
Which is the key point.
When people ask if English football is ready to accept gay footballers, they really mean ‘Are the fans ready?’, or would any players coming out fall victim to a level of abuse and ridicule that would ruin careers and scare off others from doing the same.
But I would say that now, more than any other time, the majority of fans would applaud their courage and silence the moronic minority.
Contrary to an out-dated public perception, this is the era of supporters embracing and championing social issues.
Groups have sprung up locally and nationally to challenge greed and injustices in the game, many ditching old rivalries and working together.
We’ve seen The Football Supporters Federation unite with Kick It Out to run a campaign called Fans For Diversity; Middlesbrough fans show solidarity with sacked steel-workers and those exploited by the makers of poverty-porn TV shows; “Refugees Welcome banners” held up at grounds such as Arsenal’s, Aston Villa’s and Swindon’s; Liverpool and Everton fans setting up a joint food-bank under the title “Hunger Doesn’t Wear Club Colours”; anti-fascist flags flown at non-League Clapton, and Dulwich Hamlet supporters chanting “We love you Stonewall, we do” when they played the country’s leading gay team.
Attitudes among all but a hardcore of fans are shifting to a more liberal stance, and any gay professionals wanting to come out should take great encouragement from that.
Meaning the only people who then needed outing were the bigots.