Really enjoyed this article.

What I would say is that I do believe football is institutionally racist, sexist, and homophobic. This has been masked by gradual shift from the game as a working class sport to a middle class one, which perhaps reflects the widening decline of the working class, as a by-product of the death of manufacturing. The lower middle class has learned that it is not acceptable to to air racist views. That does not mean that they are not there. It has taken concerted effort from a succession of governments to get a bunch of middle aged, upper-middle class white men within the structures of the FA to accept this reality and again I believe they have accepted it without challenging their beliefs (the structure is still white, coaches are still white, managers are still white).

Unfortunately there has been no pressure on the FA to act with regards sexism or homophobia and as such there has been no real check on such behaviour.

Football is inherently homophobic, sexist, and racist because society is inherently homophobic, sexist, and racist. This is a by-product of a patriarchal society that has existed for centuries to protect the interests of white men. I think we have fooled ourselves into believing that progress has been made in the fight against any prejudice; it may be less hostile for black footballers today and I’m sure one day it will be less hostile for gay footballers, but this is purely because the middle class fans will come to accept that they may not air homphobic views.

The views will never leave the terraces though, let alone the pubs – the only affordable place to watch regular football.

Homosexuality will remain a taboo in football until homophobia becomes taboo. But just as homosexual footballers are hiding their sexuality now, homophobic fans will merely hide their homophobia in the future.

When there is religious issues brought up, players are reprimanded. Think Gascoigne and Healey mimicking the flute to Celtic fans, Gascoigne was fined £4,000. However, when Fowler bent down in front of a free-kick taken by Le Saux and displayed his backside, suggesting Le Saux was interested, he refused to take the kick. Le Saux was booked for time wasting and Fowler was not punished by the F.A. Not setting a great example is it?

Finally, Dan – “He’s fighting to escape those sterotypes from the off”

But why is it that these sterotypes are so engrained in the minds of football fans, and if an England player came out as gay do you think fans would support him? Man City are the only football team classed as a gay friendly business by Stonewall and when the survey discussed above was released all 20 Premier League managers refused to comment, what will it have to take for these boundaries to be broken down?

In terms of homosexuality being the last form of prejudice, I genuinely believe most fans see footballers on a spectrum, with the ‘real men’, the Norman Hunters, Dixie Deans, Nemanja Vidics at one end of the spectrum (and usually confined to history) and the modern footballer at the other end of the spectrum. The less masculine a player appears, the harder it is to win fan support; every time the player goes down he is a ‘tart’ or a ‘poof’. The less masculine he is perceived to be, the better he must be to win approval. Now imagine that an openly gay footballer takes to the pitch, he’s fighting to escape those stereotypes from the off. If he happens to also be a tricky winger who goes down under the slightest of tackles, then he’s got no chance.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/article6882842.ece

I don’t think it is. We still have racist chanting at football matches every now and again, women aren’t allowed to compete on the same stage as men and there are other forms of discrimination in place, still. I don’t think any fans really care about religion, class etc. but I think that it’s the loud, aggressive nature of football fans anyway. I doubt that many of the people chanting are actually homophobic, racist etc. and I also doubt that many of them think that the referee is a w****r but it’s often just part of the culture and really needs some fixing by the FA, imo.