|
England Football Association chairman Greg Clarke says he is encouraging several players to come out as gay together. Clarke, who last year told a Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee that a Premier League player coming out would face "significant abuse'' from supporters, told The Times on Monday that he "met 15 gay sports people in the last four weeks to ask their views" and advocated that several players share the spotlight. "I put the message out there that if a number of top-level pros want to come out, why don't we synchronise it?" Clarke said. "So one person doesn't have to come out on their own. "The Premier League, the Football League and the FA could do it at the start of the season. At the start of the season everybody thinks it is their season, the crowds are happy, the sun is shining. I was asked [recently] if football is ready for top-level pros to come out and I said I'm not sure we were. "There was a survey which said people would support gay people in their own team, yes, but I'm worried about what they said about gay people in the other team, not that they would do bad things, but I said we should prepare well. "I've been asking the gay community, 'How can we provide more support and orchestrate it so that people get the right level of support if people want to be open about their sexuality?' "I've met 15 gay sports people in the last four weeks to ask their views, including footballers. It is very difficult to get to a representative set of gay top-level footballers because some of them are happy with their sexuality and just don't want anyone to know. "I don't want to be part of a process that says, 'You've got to come out.' That's not right. People are cautious. It's a one-way street. Once you're out of the closet, you're out." Clarke also suggested that Gareth Southgate's successor as England manager could be drawn from the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) community. "I can see a black England manager," Clarke said when asked about Brighton and Hove Albion's Chris Hughton, the former Ireland international born in east London. "Why not? It would be wonderful to see a black England manager. It would put us forward 20 years."
|
