Quote Originally Posted by laddo View Post
Yes I have but rarely, I've heard we want to play attractive entertaining football, entertain the crowd etc. All spectator sports wish to entertain.

When you widen it significantly to British Entertainment Industry football is a long way down the list in my head, maybe you put it up alongside the theatre, movies, television and musical artists. The latest James Bond movie, Hamilton the musical, The Rolling Stones and Blackpool FC. Sounds right lol

Hold on , you may have lost me here , but are you saying it's not brave to come out to your family but is to come out to a nation? Probably not but want to make sure.

If it doesn't take bravery, it could earn you more money than you would have earned without making a public announcement and he won't receive more abuse (online or from the stands), then since 1990 scores and scores of footballers have missed a golden opportunity to seriously cash in. What were they waiting for a ****ager to go first in 2022?


As far as I'm aware Blackpool FC's primary function isn't health care, education, politics, tansport etc. etc. So yes I would bracket them in with TV, film and pop music - one of several areas of the entertainment industry with its' varying degrees of celebrity ranging from local level to national, with the opportunity for those who want it to gain more attention and validation than, for example, a lorry driver who might want the whole world to know what his se><uality is on the basis that he can be himself and so that he doesn't have to lie or pretend the next time he fills up with diesel.

I was asking you, rather than making a statement, whether or not you thought it less brave or not brave at all to come out to family, friends and colleagues than it is to take it to social or mass media where you're pretty much guaranteed overwhelmingly positive feedback with a safety net of the threat of cancellation or police investigation for anybody who might want to push back.

For somebody in a situation where family members or close friends have made it clear they have a problem with gay people, then they would run the risk of damaging relationships with people that matter to them. Perhaps a person in that position would be more deserving of being described as brave.

We don't know how many gay professional footballers there have been since Justin Fashanu, but whatever the number (and assuming it's more than zero) it could be that some at least have valued being known as a footballer purely based on their football ability alone over any inflated acclaim or reward they might or might not have got for being a gay footballer. For others, it may be a case that they haven't wanted to come out in public because that would mean they wouldn't be able to keep it from a certain family member or friend who they know would struggle with it.