Gay and lesbian groups across Europe have called on sporting authorities to take disciplinary action against the head of Croatia's football federation after he said gay players would be banned from playing for the country.
Vlatko Markovic served to emphasise the extent to which homophobia is still rife in the sport after saying that "only healthy people play football" and adding that there was no room for gay men in the sport. The European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF), which represents 17,000 active sportsmen and women, is leading the calls for legal action to be taken against Markovic and calling on Uefa, the governing body of football in Europe, to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him. Uefa says it has not yet opened an investigation.
Ulrike Lunacek, the Austrian Green MEP [Member of the European Parliament] and active participant in the Gay Games, warned that if the Croatian government failed to take action against Markovic his outburst could affect its application to join the European Union. One of the conditions is that the country implements EU-standard anti-discrimination legislation.
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Theo Zwanziger, the head of Germany's football federation, who has been commended for his appeal to gay players to approach him if they want to come out, has voiced his surprise that professional football remains one of the few areas of public life where homosexuality is taboo. "In politics, art and culture it is no longer a problem but professional football appears to be more set in its ways," he said. Some gay players particularly in Germany and Italy, even arrange fake marriages, German media expert Tatjana Eggeling told the TV programme ZDF Sportstudio.
Although experts estimate that around 10% of footballers are gay, hardly any have come out. It is 20 years since Justin Fashanu became the only prominent British footballer active in the sport to do so. Fashanu, who killed himself in 1998 after being accused of sexual assault, recalled how his life had been made unbearable by repeated taunts of "bloody poof" from the late Brian Clough, his manager at Nottingham Forest, who banned him from training with the team after his homosexuality was revealed.
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