Throughout the years, the media has made many a declaration against homosexuality in football, many of them highly insulting and humiliating. Most of these insults come from coaches for professional teams and national teams, but many professional football players themselves have flung indisputably discriminatory messages against the presence of homosexual players in their teams. Below is a sample of the hateful narratives against hojosexuality, and its visibility in the sport:

“Homosexuality is still a taboo in football (..) more so for a football player who shares clothes with his teammates (…) From a personal perspective, I think it’s possible to live without showin your tendencies, or it can be done in a discreet way.”

2016, Damiano Tommasi (president of the Italian football union and ex player of “la Roma”)

In Spain, we are not yet ready for a football player to reveal their homosexuality. If they were to do it, they would have to leave the support. The persons homosexuality would be the object of mockery for rival fans. It would make their lives impossible and would likely continue week after week.

2015, Paco Jémez (coach for Rayo Vallecano)

“Football is not for fairies”

2015, Favio Capello (Coach for the Russian National Team)

“To me it doesn’t matter if they are dating or not, but I don’t want to see them holding hands or doing strange things.”

2015, Leonardo Cuéllar (Coach of  Selección Femenina de México)

“As sad as it may seem, I would not (…) recommend coming out of the closet. A player coming out of the closet would have to endure hostile fans on the field every saturday.”

2013, Oliver Khan (ex-goalie for the German National Team)

«I would say that in order to be a rugby or a football player, it’s necessary to have a large amount of testosterone. You don’t need as much to design clothes. We could say, they don’t require the same amount of masculinity.”

2012, Michael Robinson (ex player and sports commentator)

“If they are queer, that’s their problem. I only hope that there are homosexuals in the national team, but if they have them, that’s their problem.”

2012, Antonio Cassano (Ialian forward for  Milán)

“I respect homosexuales, but I do not want to see them in uniform. I will not leave a team for this, because I respect a homosexual person the same a black person, a fat person, or a dwarf, but if possible, I would prefer to not have gay people in my life.

2012, Ivan Rakitic (Coration player for  Sevilla FC)

“There is no way I would be able to play with a gay football player in the national team. Fortunately, football is only played by healthy people.”

2012, Vlatko Markovic (President of the Croatian national team)

«I would not recommend that any professional, gay, football player come out of the closet. I would be afraid that he would suffer the same fate as the English soccer player Justin Fashanu, who felt so cornered after revealing his homosexuality that he ended up committing suicide. «

2011, Philipp Lahm (Captain of FC Bayern Munich)

“My suggestion to gay people, as a heterosexual and a christian, that they read the bible. In the bible, it says clearly that homosexuality is a sin.”