England’s ‘only openly gay footballer’ hints a group of players are preparing to come out together
He claims around 20 European players are coordinating an announcement
England’s only openly gay footballer has suggested around 20 professional players may be preparing to come out.
Liam Davis was outed in 2014 by local papers and referred to as England’s only out footballer after he sent a supportive tweet to former Aston Villa player Thomas Hitzelperger who came out following his retirement.
Davis has now spoken to the Telegraph about coming out, and claimed it would be easier if a “group” came out together before revealing that he’s heard of a pan-European campaign by a number of players to coordinate a coming out announcement.
“Apparently there’s a group of about 20 who are working on this, who have confided in other people,” he said.
“The only problem with that is then it would all seem very staged.”
“Some people don’t want attention, they just want to go and do the job and then go home. Some people might like to be in the media.”
Davis also fronted a new Uefa initiative called Equal Game, a campaign launched to promote inclusion and diversity across European football.
Speaking about the campaign, Davis said: “I’ve not done much in terms of pushing my situation, but with it being such a big campaign, I thought it would be good just to share my positive view on things.
“It seems to me bizarre that we’re really not getting anywhere, that people are still reluctant to come out. I want to tell them that literally I have never had any issues, no problems, nothing but a positive response.
“If I can get that out there, that football is a wonderfully supportive environment, then I guess I should.”
Davis also urged closeted players to come out, he said: “Though if anyone did ever ask my advice, I’d say: do it, don’t worry.”