English Football Association to fund anti-homophobia video

[Black Dagger]

FA to fund anti-homophobia video


http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/english-premier-league/fa-to-fund-anti-homophobia-video-162607/

7 January 2009 | 09:59 - PA Sport



[/URL]






[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_FA"]The Football Association (http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/english-premier-league/fa-to-fund-anti-homophobia-video-162607/#article1) has agreed to fund a video featuring high-profile Premier League stars speaking out against homophobia in the game.

Peter Tatchell, of the gay rights group OutRage!, suggested the DVD as a way of challenging the abuse hurled by fans at some players.
Tatchell's proposals have now been given the go-ahead by the FA and its equality and diversity organisation, Kick It Out, with the backing of the Professional Footballers' Association, which represents Britain's top players.
"After years of lobbying, the FA has agreed to approach top footballers to make a MTV-style video against homophobia," said Tatchell.
"The plan is to feature big-name stars speaking out against homophobia, in order to make anti-gay chants look as stupid, ignorant and uncool as racist ones.
"Our wish list of participating football stars includes David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch, David James, Wayne Rooney, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Theo Walcott and Michael Owen.


"We're pressing the FA to get this video broadcast on TV and at matches on the giant stadium screens. We also want the FA to put it on YouTube and distribute copies to every school in the country.
"Our aim is to 'Give homophobia the boot' - to kick anti-gay prejudice off the pitch and out of the terraces. We believe this video will help challenge bigoted attitudes among fans.
"The video idea is a ground-breaking initiative that will have a huge, positive impact in football circles in Britain. It will also be a world first, since no other football governing body has even attempted anything as upfront and bold.
"We expect the video to have a global impact and reach football fans all over the world, helping break down prejudice and thereby make the game a more welcoming and safe sport for gay players and spectators - not just in Britain but internationally."
Tatchell insists it is high time homophobia received the same treatment within the game as racism.
"Although it is only a minority of homophobic fans who are creating problems, they are quite sizeable and vociferous. Many gay spectators currently feel threatened and excluded. It is also a turn off for straight families to be surrounded by aggressive, homophobic hooligans," he said.
"OutRage! has been pressing the FA for many years to tackle homophobia in the same way that it tackles racism. We are delighted that the FA has finally agreed to our video proposal. But we are also pressing for additional action to stamp out prejudice.
"The FA should impose big fines and match suspensions on players and managers who use anti-gay insults. Stewards should be required to identify fans who shout homophobic abuse and the FA should secure the agreement of the police to arrest and evict them - in the same way that they arrest and evict racist fans.
"Education against homophobia is even more important, in order to make the game accessible, friendly and secure for gay footballers and fans. The FA needs to secure the agreement of all clubs to feature anti-homophobia messages in their match programmes, on tickets and on billboards inside and outside football grounds."
Tatchell also launched another attack on Chelsea's decision to appoint Luiz Felipe Scolari as manager after the Brazilian's previously aired views on gay players.
"The appointment of Phil Scolari to manage Chelsea should have been vetoed by FA and Chelsea bosses," added Tatchell. "He had previously said he would refuse to have a gay player in his team.
"The FA should have not allowed him to take up his post until he renounced discrimination and gave an undertaking to abide by the FA's equality policies.
"If Scolari had said that black players were banned from his team, there would have been uproar. He would have been immediately ruled out of the running for the Chelsea managership. Why the double standards?
"Sport is one the last great bastions of homophobia, and football (together with boxing) is the least gay-friendly of all sports. We need much tougher official action to root out bigotry."


-----------------


It's good to see such a prominent sporting body taking a strong stance against homophobia in their sport, and refreshing since homophobia usually doesn't get a serious mention by FIFA etc.



Do yall think this campaign will be effective?

[Module]

Yes! I do. There was recently a similar story on the news about AFL players making an advertisement about domestic violence in the Northern Territory, which was said to have been very successful.

Football players are role models to many young men, they're who they go to support when they go to the matches - if they know that those players think that homophobia is wrong, they will be more likely to accept that themselves, as they respect them, and are less likely to get caught up with a homophobic atmosphere of the crowds if the players themselves have openly condemned it.

[Killfacer]

I heard about this, it think it was triggered by Tottenham fans singing homophobic/racist chants at Sol Campbell. Theres this baseless rumour around from a couple of years a go that he's gay so lot's of fans (mainly tottenham ones because they are scum) get on his back about it. They managed to identify a lot of those singing racist/homophobic chants and have banned them from goign to watch the football which is good.

The encouraging thing is how they are now not only concentrating on racism. Racism isn't that big a problem in the English game anymore but homophobia definatly is.

[Vanguard1917]

I'm not at all a fan of politicians and campaigners using football for their particular social engineering projects. Furthermore, i am passionately opposed to those who call for greater policing of football terraces, greater regulation of football supporters, more busy bodies being employed to scrutinise fans and dictate conduct and behaviour.

Rather than demanding more regulation of football stadiums, we should in fact be demanding far less. So, no, i certainly am not supportive of Tatchell's demands.

[Redmau5]

mainly tottenham ones because they are scum)

So they are scum simply because they're Spurs fans? :confused:

Anyway, this is great to hear. I've heard a shocking amount of homophobic abuse being directed against players, officials, rival fans etc. when I've been to football matches, even at grounds like Old Trafford which are heavily stewarded.

I'm glad to see the FA is taking action, and hopefully more fans will be able to enjoy games with resorting to sickening homophobic or racist chanting. However, I believe more practical measures should be put in place. If someone is heard to be making racist comments and/or singing racist chants, they can be reported to a match official and ejected from the stadium. The same should apply to anyone overheard shouting homophobic insults and abuse.

[communard resolution]

mainly tottenham ones because they are scumI don't find them to be particularly fearsome or right-wing when compared to other clubs. I've seen quite a few non-whites in their midst and no one bothered them. Can't say the same about, say Chelsea.

Oh, and the anti-homophobia thing is a good idea. You never know if something works until you try it, but I'd say it's certainly worth an attempt. Or would you prefer people to derive their ideas about sexuality from Kate Perry songs?

[F9]

I'm not at all a fan of politicians and campaigners using football for their particular social engineering projects. Furthermore, i am passionately opposed to those who call for greater policing of football terraces, greater regulation of football supporters, more busy bodies being employed to scrutinise fans and dictate conduct and behaviour.

Rather than demanding more regulation of football stadiums, we should in fact be demanding far less. So, no, i certainly am not supportive of Tatchell's demands.

i am on completely agreement with you(are you football fan?because you definitely sounded so;)), we take care of facists and racists on our own and on the streets, i am not waiting from any fucking state to put regulations against something!I am against all laws!



Football players are role models to many young men, they're who they go to support when they go to the matchesThats not true!Fans are following teams, not players, players come and go, is the team which will be always there!Players can get to a very high level of respect to the fans, even "loving" them(with not sexual things-most of the times-) but they never reach the "passion" of the fans for the team!If the team wasnt there players wouldnt be either, but otherwise isnt "working"!People going to matches to watch a player and not the match or their team, i can characterize them as "crazy", but definitely not football fans, maybe that player fans!


Fuserg9:star:

[Pogue]

i am on completely agreement with you(are you football fan?because you definitely sounded so;)), we take care of facists and racists on our own and on the streets, i am not waiting from any fucking state to put regulations against something!I am against all laws!



Thats not true!Fans are following teams, not players, players come and go, is the team which will be always there!Players can get to a very high level of respect to the fans, even "loving" them(with not sexual things-most of the times-).


Fuserg9:star:

Unfortunately in the UK we don't have militant antifa fans in all of our stadiums, so regulating it ourselves would be impossible or would just result in getting ones head kicked in by a bunch of C18 veterans (I'm a Chelsea fan).

[apathy maybe]

Repost:

I'm not at all a fan of politicians and campaigners using football for their particular social engineering projects. Furthermore, i am passionately opposed to those who call for greater policing of football terraces, greater regulation of football supporters, more busy bodies being employed to scrutinise fans and dictate conduct and behaviour.

Rather than demanding more regulation of football stadiums, we should in fact be demanding far less. So, no, i certainly am not supportive of Tatchell's demands.
I'm interested in you explaining more fully what you mean by "social engineering projects" in your post.

I'm also wondering if you support what Fuserg9 says about dealing with homophobic folks watching the game, or do you think they should be left alone?


More specifically related to the video bit, do you support the FA putting out a video condemning homophobia? Do you think that they should stick to sport?

[Killfacer]

i am on completely agreement with you(are you football fan?because you definitely sounded so;)), we take care of facists and racists on our own and on the streets, i am not waiting from any fucking state to put regulations against something!I am against all laws!



Thats not true!Fans are following teams, not players, players come and go, is the team which will be always there!Players can get to a very high level of respect to the fans, even "loving" them(with not sexual things-most of the times-).


Fuserg9:star:

Spot on, real fans do not follow a team because they have a player they like. That's the kind of thing a tottenham "fan" would do.

[Killfacer]

So they are scum simply because they're Spurs fans? :confused:

Anyway, this is great to hear. I've heard a shocking amount of homophobic abuse being directed against players, officials, rival fans etc. when I've been to football matches, even at grounds like Old Trafford which are heavily stewarded.

I'm glad to see the FA is taking action, and hopefully more fans will be able to enjoy games with resorting to sickening homophobic or racist chanting. However, I believe more practical measures should be put in place. If someone is heard to be making racist comments and/or singing racist chants, they can be reported to a match official and ejected from the stadium. The same should apply to anyone overheard shouting homophobic insults and abuse.

I'm an arsenal fan, so naturally i dislike them. I also hate them for the following reasons:

1. They think they're a big club even though they're not. Like Newcastle, they have delusions of granduer.
2. They're all arrogant idiots trolls
3. They're from the shit part of London.
4. They play shit football
5. They bang on about having English players even though they have to pay well over the odds for shit ones.

[Vanguard1917]

I'm interested in you explaining more fully what you mean by "social engineering projects" in your post.

I'm refering to attempts by politicians and campaign groups to use football to propagate their politics, change 'social attitudes', and so on.



I'm also wondering if you support what Fuserg9 says about dealing with homophobic folks watching the game, or do you think they should be left alone?


My attitude to un-PC chanting on football terraces is based on my recognition that what goes on at football matches should actually not be taken very seriously at all. A football stadium is one place where grown men, and sometimes women, can get away with saying things that they never would say otherwise. Why? Because of the tacit understanding among fans that football is not something to be taken too seriously. The vile content of football chants is itself evidence of this understanding.

For example, consider this popular piece about Chelsea with reference to Frank Lampard's dead mother:

Sing a song of Chelsea and how they lost the cup,
They took the game to penalties and Terry stuffed it up,
The team all looked like Avram,
The players were so glum,
But I haven’t laughed so much since Lampard lost his mum.

It's disgusting and in terrible taste. But it's also something which the fans singing it on the terraces would likely not repeat in the 'real world' of work, family, friends and civilisation. In the world outside of football, it's commonly held by most that laughing about death should not be done. On the terraces, however, it's somewhat acceptable. As some have observed, football is a kind of pantomime for grown-ups (link (http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5827/)). How people behave at football games is no accurate reflection of how they would behave outside of football games. It's precisely as a result of this that campaigns to ban homophobic chanting at matches will do nothing to stop homophobia in society, in the same way that promoting match songs on laughing about death will do nothing to promote similar behaviour in wider society. This is, of course, contrary to the incorrect view commonly held by our social and political leaders, past and present, who see foul behaviour at football matches as indication of the degraded state of public morality, virtues, etc.



More specifically related to the video bit, do you support the FA putting out a video condemning homophobia? Do you think that they should stick to sport?


No, i don't think that the FA should be in the business of regulating terrace chanting.

[Killfacer]

I'm refering to attempts by politicians and campaign groups to use football to propagate their politics, change 'social attitudes', and so on.



My attitude to un-PC chanting on football terraces is based on my recognition that what goes on at football matches should actually not be taken very seriously at all. A football stadium is one place where grown men, and sometimes women, can get away with saying things that they never would say otherwise. Why? Because of the tacit understanding among fans that football is not something to be taken too seriously. The vile content of football chants is itself evidence of this understanding.

For example, consider this popular piece about Chelsea with reference to Frank Lampard's dead mother:

Sing a song of Chelsea and how they lost the cup,
They took the game to penalties and Terry stuffed it up,
The team all looked like Avram,
The players were so glum,
But I haven’t laughed so much since Lampard lost his mum.

It's disgusting and in terrible taste. But it's also something which the fans singing it on the terraces would likely not repeat in the 'real world' of work, family, friends and civilisation. In the world outside of football, it's commonly held by most that laughing about death should not be done. On the terraces, however, it's somewhat acceptable. As some have observed, football is a kind of pantomime for grown-ups (link (http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5827/)). How people behave at football games is no accurate reflection of how they would behave outside of football games. It's precisely as a result of this that campaigns to ban homophobic chanting at matches will do nothing to stop homophobia in society, in the same way that promoting match songs on laughing about death will do nothing to promote similar behaviour in wider society. This is, of course, contrary to the incorrect view commonly held by our social and political leaders, past and present, who see foul behaviour at football matches as indication of the degraded state of public morality, virtues, etc.



No, i don't think that the FA should be in the business of regulating terrace chanting.

What do you think about genuine nazi grandstanding. For example a polish team was punished because it's fan's formed a Swastika and straight armed.

Or what about when spanish fans did monkey chants towards black players and threw bananas on the pitch?

[Vanguard1917]

What do you think about genuine nazi grandstanding. For example a polish team was punished because it's fan's formed a Swastika and straight armed.

Or what about when spanish fans did monkey chants towards black players and threw bananas on the pitch?

I think that it's appalling, and supporters who throw objects on to the pitch, as opposed to mere vocalising, should be told not to do so by stewards, but i don't see justification for the authorities stepping in to outlaw chanting, however offensive its contents may be.

[apathy maybe]

No, i don't think that the FA should be in the business of regulating terrace chanting.
That wasn't the question I asked, I asked if you thought if they should put out this video or not.

Seriously, this isn't (just) about chanting in the terraces, this video is also about homophobic attitudes outside the football field.

[Vanguard1917]

That wasn't the question I asked, I asked if you thought if they should put out this video or not.

Seriously, this isn't (just) about chanting in the terraces, this video is also about homophobic attitudes outside the football field.

It's a video which is meant to supplement new measures to 'identify fans' for chanting, and getting 'the police to arrest and evict them'.

[Module]

Spot on, real fans do not follow a team because they have a player they like. That's the kind of thing a tottenham "fan" would do.This is no doubt because I don't 'understand' football, but are you saying that somebody who likes a team because of the team itself, and because they think the players in that team are good players and play the game well, rather than liking the banner the players are under is not a real "fan" of the game?
That sort of reminds of some YouTube comment I saw saying that people, and also all women and children, who would want to go to a football game to actually watch the football shouldn't come, because football games are actually about beating up rival fans.

[Killfacer]

This is no doubt because I don't 'understand' football, but are you saying that somebody who likes a team because of the team itself, and because they think the players in that team are good players and play the game well, rather than liking the banner the players are under is not a real "fan" of the game?
That sort of reminds of some YouTube comment I saw saying that people, and also all women and children, who would want to go to a football game to actually watch the football shouldn't come, because football games are actually about beating up rival fans.

I am saying that no player is bigger than his club and that you should not support a team simply because you like their players. No fan who turns up week in week out goes because they like certain players, they go because they love the club.

Fuserg will (hopefully) back me up on this. He supports Omonia, who don't have exactly a great team (no offence). He would support the team no matter how bad or good the players are, because he supports the team and not the players.

[F9]

This is no doubt because I don't 'understand' football, but are you saying that somebody who likes a team because of the team itself, and because they think the players in that team are good players and play the game well, rather than liking the banner the players are under is not a real "fan" of the game?

Sorry for not replying after so long, and i still wont do it in "maximum" because i dont have and much of time to fully analyze what i want to say, and if i get in depth analysis of football and fans, i will hardly "get away" until i end..:p
First of all, you are taking the word fan, in a totally different explanation than i do and most of the people that actually understand the sport and get the feeling of what a fan is.Fan ,for me at least, while not getting "too deep" is the one who follows his team anywhere supporting it with his chantings, make beautiful displays to give courage to the players and "push them" to play better, they really "love" their team, and usually their team is there first and last thought each day, they walk and thing of the upcoming games, they gather together with other people with the same team and they are acting like they are brothers and sisters, real ones, they are being part of a huge family.The word fan gets from the word fanatics for us, and thats what we are fanatics for the team, the emblem, not few well paid players!!They might like the game those you described, and they might "love" their team too, but that dont makes them fans!However , just to point it out, we dont think ourselfes "better" or something from the other supporters of our team which are not really fans, they are brothers and sisters too, until they get against us(something that happens in few occasions when they are dissagreeing with some of our actions).



That sort of reminds of some YouTube comment I saw saying that people, and also all women and children, who would want to go to a football game to actually watch the football shouldn't come, because football games are actually about beating up rival fans.

Thats called hooliganism and it is an idiocy, and besides hooligans are basically got away from the football stadiums, since ULTRAS get in "power".In ULTRAS mentality anyone who follows the particular "rules" of the whole idea is a real member of us and can join us if can take us:lol:.If not s/he will just be proposed to get somewhere else than the stand ULTRAS sit, because if they did come to see football there, such thing dont happens in there.In a stand full of flags, plakats, some times flares etc, it isnt easy actually see football.So usually people who dont agree with the ULTRAS mentalita do not get thrown away by them, by they get "their own road" away from ULTRAS "territory".
Football is about supporting your team, a team which makes some sense, to have fun etc.Those said those things, is NOT, neither a fan, neither a supporter, s/he is just an idiot.


Fuserg9:star:

[Bilan]

I am saying that no player is bigger than his club and that you should not support a team simply because you like their players. No fan who turns up week in week out goes because they like certain players, they go because they love the club.

Fuserg will (hopefully) back me up on this. He supports Omonia, who don't have exactly a great team (no offence). He would support the team no matter how bad or good the players are, because he supports the team and not the players.

I just love the game.
And happen to really like Van Persie and Thierry Henry.
Primarily because they're gods.

[Module]

Ok, fair enough, Fuserg, good reply.
Like I said, I know I don't 'understand' football, I've never watched it or had anything to do with it.
I used to watch rugby sometimes because my parents are both into it, and they are, yes, like what you describe; 'fans'.
(Though it just so happens that the All Blacks, who my parents support, tend to be the better team, overall. I know they'd support them even if they were shit :p and I suppose now I think about it that's the fun of it, so I do understand where you're coming from )
:)