Philosophising thug Joey Barton believes it’s time football embraced its gay players. But he doesn’t mean he wants to “literally” embrace players. That’d be gay.
“The bureaucrats have been guilty of not taking a tough enough stance to make this issue go away,” he said, sounding suspiciously like the start of a Richard Littlejohn column about the EU. “We live in quite a liberal democracy and it’s incredible we’re even having this conversation in 2013. The modern-day footballer is quite open-minded I think. People’s sexuality has become less and less of an issue.”
Well said Joey. However, he then ruined it by adding: “Hopefully a large number of players will get behind the campaign.” *Insert Sid James-style dirty laugh here*
The QPR midfielder spearheaded a campaign by bookies Paddy Power and gay charity Stonewall to get footballers to don rainbow bootlaces last month.
Players at 134 professional teams in Britain were sent the laces to promote the Right Behind Gay Footballers message, which not only aims to tackle homophobia but also describes what gay footballers are looking for.
“It’ll be incredibly difficult to be the first player to come out until the game makes it easier for gay players to do so,” Barton added. “It’s not down to the players whose sexuality may be called into question to make the next move. It’s important we take the first steps with this campaign. To any gay footballers, we have to say: we will support you.”
If anyone else had said it we’d be impressed, but coming from a guy who once tried to kill as many Man City players as he could in one minute, we’re not exactly convinced of his ‘liberal’ attitude. Still, when Joey Barton says he wants to stamp homophobia out you know he’ll take it seriously, and he’ll probably try to give it a swift knee in the bollocks too while the referee’s not looking.
In totally unrelated news, Graeme Le Saux, Sol Campbell and Matthew Taylor have made no comments this month.
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