Narrow Mind Sets

[swampy]

This week's documentary about gays in football was so telling. Be honest - would the City fans be like those Leeds fans at Brighton with their oh so predictable homophobic chants? Imagine a goal down - controversial game - referee was gay (like Nigel Owen) and their start striker was gay (Gareth Thomas). It doesn't take half a brain cell to know what the reaction from the stands would be. Only one footballer has ever come out as being gay and then he took his life. Football is really stuck in a time warp. Just look at all the cr'p re- this upcoming Leeds game. "The home stands are ours so keep out". Just put 'trouble' in a message topic and it goes viral. Despite the superficial gloss, football is as racist and sexist as it always has been. The day a gay Cardiff fan could stand in the Atyeo is a million years away ... and yet in all other sports this would be an anachronism. Football is still very much a white working class game with all that that entails. I feel safer as an Englishman at the Gnoll watching Neath play Port Talbot or Aberavon at rugby than I do as a Bristolian at Ashton Gate watching Leeds or Millwall. Madness and a reflection of the narrow mindedness of so many football fans.

[mcbcfc]

Jonathan lieu wrote a really good article in Monday's telegraph about the subject of gay footballers and crowd mentality

[beaverface]

Trouble is, and I'm not saying it's right, BUT there's always going to be somewhere you can't go and not feel vulernable, whether it's a football match at Ashton Gate, Brighton, Poland or whether it's taking a stroll through St Pauls or South London late time at night.

We can talk about how bad these things are, but there will always be an element of bitterness and nastinest that we'll never get rid of in society.