It’s Sunday afternoon and that generally means one thing to me.  Watching whatever football is on while sipping a cup of tea and relaxing.  This weekend is FA Cup weekend and since my beloved Arsenal were dumped out of the cup in the last round I am actually able to relax, which is an odd sensation for any football fan.  As I type this I am watching Bolton host Spurs, a curious situation as I am not usually up for Bolton but then what can I do, it’s not like I can be up for Spurs is it?

As a football fan I have to admit that the game does take over a lot of my life.  If you look at the calendar on my phone you will see I have all of Arsenal’s televised games in there, just to make sure I don’t tell someone I can see them on those days, football comes first after all.  Everyday I go onto the news websites and worry about the next game.  Anyone who supports any team in any sport can relate to this.

I spend quiet a lot of my time defending football to those of you who follow GAA, rugby or other contact sports.  I defend the “simulations” in the box, I try to defend those pathetic players who crumble as though they have been shot simply because someone brushed against them, I defend it all.  However, I have now, for the first time in my life, come up against the indefensible and for the first time in my life I am ashamed of my sport.

The football association (FA) have been forced to cancel the release of a video aimed at eliminating homophobia from the game.  Why?  As they could not get any footballing stars to appear in it!  I have to say I am beyond disappointed.  For this reason the FA had to rethink their video, eventually coming up with this.

Homophobia at some football grounds is a real problem and it must be stamped out.  It’s not that long ago since arrests were made when Spurs played Portsmouth.  The FA have planned this video for two years and now this.  It’s heart breaking.

Graeme Le Saux, the former England and Chelsea defender, is hetrosexual, but he was never into the “laddish” side of the game.  In his autobiography he wrote,

I was like a bullied kid on his way to school to face his tormentors

What kind of a way is this for adults to behave? It happens in many work places but footballers are looked up to by children and as such must behave with some amount of respect and decorum.  There are around 4,000 professional footballers in England and Wales and not one is out.  That is just crazy in this day and age. Let’s hope that out stars like GAA player Donal Og Cusack and rugby legend Gareth Thomas can lead the way for some football players.

So what can clubs do about it?  I know that at Arsenal, if you hear any racist or homophobic chanting you can text the seat number and a steward will arrive on the spot, never acknowledging you in any way as the person who text.  I have no doubt that other stadiums have similar procedures. This kind of thing does seem more prevalent in certain clubs though and one can only hope that those clubs are doing something about it.

It appears that they won’t be getting any help from their stars.

UPDATE: I found this link of the BBC website, it’s about the campiagn and well worth a look

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