Homophobia in Football
By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw
Homophobia is rife in men's football globally, although there are efforts by supporters' groups and the football authorities to combat it. There are few openly gay players in the men's game, and many male players only come out on retirement.
Those who have come out suffer abuse, often on any daily basis.
Once such player is Josh Cavallo, who, since coming out as gay in 2021, has received daily death threats and abusive messages on social media.
He commented:
"When I first saw these messages, it broke my heart."
And added:
"I'm trying to get better as a player and be the best I can be on the pitch and then get put down because of who I am as a person. It's disgusting."
In 2021, Cavallo was a midfielder for Adelaide United in Australia, when he became the only openly gay top-flight male professional footballer in the world.
He left Australia in the summer of 2025 to join the non-league Peterborough Sports, who play in the sixth tier of English football.
He combines his playing with speaking on LGBTQ+ issues and is using his profile of more than one million followers on Instagram as a champion for equality and inclusiveness.
Any kind of discrimination, including on the grounds of sexual orientation, is expressly contrary to the Olympic Charter, so the sooner the football authorities kick it out of the ‘beautiful game’, the better for all concerned!
Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw may be contacted by e-mail at ‘
