The gay issue

I was chatting to an ex-footballer I know well on Hitzelberger coming out. We like to disagree, but in this case we did not. We both regarded it as a non-story. Hitzelberger waited till he left the Premiership perhaps to avoid dressing room and crowd banter, unlike Gareth Thomas,  the wicketkeeper Davis and Tom Daley, whose careers are current. As he had a girlfriend for 8 years we did not get the life of deceit line.

My friend, who played at the top level, reminded me that, in his time, Justin Fashanu took his life. I said a few years before that it was a criminal offence. So if football has not engaged homophobia with the strides it has racism, at least society has moved forward to allow people to choose their own gender preference.

There are always rumours but, until a current England international comes out, it should not be a front page story..