UK } Gay Footballers Should Be Encourage to Come Out

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said football would send an 'incredibly strong signal' if it showed more tolerance towards homosexuality

Gay footballers should be encouraged to come ‘out’ as an example to the rest of society, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said yesterday.

Mr Hunt said football was a powerful weapon in the fight against homophobia as the sport reaches members of the public that politicians cannot.

He pointed out there were no openly gay footballers in Premier League clubs and said it would send an ‘incredibly strong signal’ if football showed a more tolerant attitude.

His comments came as the Prime Minister hosted a summit aimed at stamping out racism and homophobia in football. 

Mr Cameron said swift action was needed to ‘crush’ any return of racism in the sport following recent high-profile cases involving top players.

  

Earlier this month Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was forced to apologise for refusing to shake hands with Manchester United’s Patrice Evra before a game.

He had just returned from an eight-match ban for racially abusing Evra.

Discrimination claims: David Cameron and John Barnes, right, hold a roundtable discussion at a Downing Street racism summit today

Discussions: The group, including Sir Trevor Brooking, FA chairman David Bernstein and PFA chief Gordon Taylor listen as Mr Cameron speaks during the Downing Street summit

Row: The racism allegations surrounding Patrice Evra (left) and Luis Suarez have engulfed football for several months

Chelsea star John Terry is due to face trial in the summer on charges of racially abusing QPR’s Anton Ferdinand. Terry denies the charges.

During an interview with Radio 5 Live, Mr Hunt said the Government also wanted to encourage footballers to tackle the issue of homophobia.

Offensive: ITV reporter Richard Pallot twice referred to black footballers as 'coloured'

He said: ‘Obviously it’s pretty unlikely there aren’t any gay players, we don’t know, but it would be an incredibly strong signal if we could have a more tolerant attitude in terms of what it would say to the rest of society.’

Mr Hunt said he had given the FA two months to come up with a plan to tackle homophobic and racist issues.

He added: ‘Where football decides to do something they have a huge cut through to parts of the population that are never going to listen to people like me.’

However last night ITV News was forced to apologise after one of its journalists used the term ‘coloured’ while reporting on the No.10 summit. A spokesman said: ‘We regret any offence.’

Yesterday’s summit, which included former England stars John Barnes and Graeme Le Saux, was the 17th time since October 2010 that Mr Cameron has invited celebrities to Downing Street.

They include Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button launching a road safety campaign and actor Kevin Spacey being presented with a Big Society award. 

dailymail.co.uk   by KIRSTY WALKER