A second unnamed Premier League footballer has written an open letter on the Justin Fashanu Foundation where he claims that he is reluctant to reveal his identity because the game has failed to ‘move on’.
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The player who wishes to remain anonymous has admitted that he is scared to come out as gay because of the continued negative attitudes in football have not changed.
The unnamed player has also claimed that he has informed some of his team-mates about his sexuality but has gone onto admit that it is ‘virtually impossible’ to form a relationship outside of football.
The player’s open letter, as quoted by Sky News says: “Even though society has moved on massively since I was a teenager, the game simply hasn’t.
“Those running it need to put more measures in place so gay players know they will get the support they need.
“The powers-that-be are only playing lip service to the issue.
“Only my family members and a select group of friends are aware of my sexuality. I don’t feel ready to share it with my team or manager.”
The emotional open letter comes just months after another Premier League footballer made similar claims that he too does not want to publicly declare his sexuality due to wide-spread prejudice still thriving in football, as per Sky News.
Sky’s report goes onto state that Foundation campaigner Amal Fashanu has said she is hopeful she can bring both footballers together in an effort to help.
In light of both player’s experiences the campaigner said: “The issue really now is that fear of what fans will do and are going to say.
“But I don’t think that is as legitimate a fear as it used to be because we’re living in a world now where being gay is something that is widely accepted.”
It goes without saying that during a time when all available resources are being exercised to eradicate dark-areas of society such as racism that other topics such as sexuality should not be forgotten.
No player, or person for that matter should live their life in the shadows out of fear that they’ll receive abuse from total strangers.
Football as a whole has a wonderful ability to bring people together, where it fails is it also has a remarkable ability to divide people too.
Of course, it would be unfair to assume that every single football fan is guilty of in-sighting homophobic hatred, however, those that don’t play a key role in eradicating those that do.
Let’s hope the sport of football can continue to make great strides in becoming the all-inclusive sporting spectacle it should be.