Barton on homophobia in football: ‘Players need to step up’
By Nick Levine
Joey Barton has shared his views on homophobia in football, saying “we’ve made so much progress” but need to “keep pushing”.
The QPR midfielder took to the pitch wearing rainbow-coloured boot laces last year in support of Stonewall’s campaign reaching out to gay footballers – and has now urged other high-profile footballers to “step up”.
Speaking to a group of students at the Oxford Union yesterday (March 12), Barton said: “We’ve made so much progress and we don’t even know we’ve made that progress. But the issue is not to stop and go ‘great, we’ve made progress’. The issue is to keep pushing. I keep thinking to myself: it’s 2014 – we’re liberal in lots of ways and yet this is still an issue. It shouldn’t even be newsworthy, it shouldn’t even be an issue – because what business is it of mine or anybody else’s what someone’s else’s sexuality is? They should be judged solely on what they are as a person. If they’re a good footballer and a good person, who cares what they are?”
Barton then continued: “The fact that we’re still having these conversations and these debates and we have to do stuff like the [rainbow laces] campaign says that there’s something wrong with society and something wrong with our game, predominantly, within society. And we have to step up: footballers with profile. Everyone, not just me. I think the rainbow laces campaign was really positive but could equally be much better.”
Out footballer Robbie Rogers appears on the cover of the latest issue of Attitude, and speaks candidly in his 14-page cover feature about his struggle to get to grips with his sexuality in a predominantly heterosexual environment. Find out more about Robbie Rogers and his Attitude interview here.
Watch Joey Barton offering his views on homophobia in football below:
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc_RlyIeHig[/youtube]