BBC survey finds 8% of fans would stop watching their team if it had a gay player

A survey of more than 4,000 people, conducted by BBC Radio 5 Live, has found that 82% of soccer fans in England, Scotland and Wales would have no problem with having a gay player on their team.

However, the same survey found that 8% of fans would stop watching their team if they discovered that one of the players was homosexual.

One may have thought that we live in more enlightened times, but clearly homophobia remains a prominent issue in sports. A lack of acceptance of gay players has made headlines in the NFL in recent years, and it remains a taboo subject in the European game.

The first player to come out in England was Justin Fashanu in 1990. He committed suicide one year after retiring in 1998 and no male player in the country has come out since.

LA Galaxy star Robbie Rogers admitted that it would have been “impossible” to come out while playing in England, while Thomas Hitzlsperger—the first player with Premier League experience to have come out—waited until retirement to do so.

The survey also found that 18% of British fans felt that homosexual players should “keep it to themselves,” while 15% said a gay player coming out would make others on the team feel uncomfortable.

Last week, FA chairman Greg Clarke told Members of British Parliament that he would “not recommend” a gay player to come out due to the “vile abuse” they would likely encounter. Clarke has since been lambasted for having an old-fashioned viewpoint.

Homophobia is not just a prominent issue in the UK—a two-year study of English-speaking nations found that “rates of homophobia in sport were rampant right around the world.”

Yet there is certainly a culture of casual homophobia in the English top flight: this writer has attended hundreds of Premier League games and has heard homophobic chanting and abuse on several occasions (incidentally, 50% of those surveyed also said they had heard such abuse at a game).

However, a 57% majority in the survey also said that gay players should come out to help others follow suit. And the fact that 82% of fans surveyed would have no issue with a gay player is encouraging—that figure of acceptance is surely higher than it may have been a decade ago.