1. Why do they not come out?
Well, there will be a multitude of reasons. In a sense of being old school, football is a 'mans game' and the macho, tough tackling connotations related to it are deep-rooted. It might be bigoted and retrograde but people still view the game through those lenses. I cannot speak for a gay player at the top level - or indeed any professional sportsperson on many levels - but playing devils advocate for a moment I would think that it simply wouldn't be worth the hassle. Not that being gay is hassle, but from the footballing environment. Many people believe that gay people are somehow different, not the same. People back off, act differently. If a footballer came out gay on the Friday there is simply no way the dressing room on the Saturday would be the same. Would there be support from staff, players and the like? Yes, but you'd get others turning their back to some extent, viewing them differently. As a player making a living, do you need that? I suppose it's a trade off. Not coming out and keeping it a secret is emotionally and physically hard, yet the grass on the other side might not be as green in relation to how easy their life will be keeping it under wraps.
There are plenty of other reasons too, I would imagine. The same questions for someone in day-to-day life but magnified. They might wonder if they are going to get unwanted attention as a result. The constant media comments. Because let me tell you, many media articles will constantly refer to the player as 'the first openly gay Premier League player', as if somehow he's from Mars. It would mean he likes men, not women, and who gives a fuck? (I know there is MUCH more to it than that, but if you strip it down then John Doe who has recently came out is no different other than the sex of the person he is attracted to, and the fanfare in the eyes of many might outweigh the personal significance of coming out). Will that player think he will lose close friends in the footballing community. Will he worry about sponsorship, or post-playing employment? Will he be worried about any adverse effect on his personal performance on the pitch and by proxy, the performance of the team he plays for?
There are dozens of questions and reasons and unknowns, but in my opinion those aforementioned are the ones that I personally believe prevent someone as coming out at the moment.
2 Would they get fan support?
Yes and no. They'd get support from many in the footballing community and I sincerely hope (and given how far we've come I quietly expect) that the support would outweigh the opposition). In this day and age with social media I'd suspect that many of the jibes, insults, songs and downright bile directed at said player will happen online. You would still get idiots singing songs at the match but you'd hope with the amount of cameras and phones around they'd be wary of doing so with risk of prosecution and ridicule being so high. But yes, I do believe that fan support would be good in the majority.
3 Are clubs doing enough to help them?
Well, it is hard to say. A player could come out as gay within the club but ask to keep it private. With money and ignorance still being around to an extent there might also be a case whereby a club wants/asks the player to keep it private for fear of negative connections (in the eyes of the owners of course, you saw the Donald Sterling row a few years back in the NBA. Not the same, but you get the idea. Clubs can only do so much in some ways, you can lead a horse to water and all that, but conversely as I said earlier some players might just be happy the way they are. I would like to think though and certainly hope that within the environment of clubs there is no fear or apprehension should a player wish to come out.
4 Are FIFA and associations doing the same?
Again, it is hard to say because I would think a lot isn't played out in the public eye. But no, on the whole I don't think enough is being done to help. Be that by locations of competitions, fines/disciplinary actions for racism and crowd trouble and other things, they have and are setting bad precedents for any potential homophobia-related incidents.
I'm not sure if I've gone on too long here, I'm just speaking from what I think. My brother is gay, so I can slightly talk with experience. I understand the difficulties with reactions from people, the environment, issues with coming out, all the fears and anxieties. But ultimately my brother is my brother and I wouldn't have him any differently. He likes men. So what? Again, as I said above, for those experiencing it first-hand it is often much more than that, but for me it barely registers as a point of conversation any more. I take the piss out of him sometimes, the odd innuendo, a few jokes and he gives it back to me about being rather short and looking a tad like Danny De Vito in One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest. Ultimately though I only joke like that because I know he can handle it. If he couldn't or didn't like it, I wouldn't. But he laughs and says it's funny. The issue there though is that everyone wont be like that. Imagine, for example, in a dressing room environment with 25-30 men. Is someone going to crack a joke? Is the player going to be offended? Will certain words not be used where they were previously? Again, there are 1 million questions and not every answer will be the same depending on who the player is, their personality, their club, people around them, how the media perceives them and many other things.
It's not an easy topic to discuss but in some ways it should be. I do have this nagging feeling though, that despite my optimism, that we'll be asking the same questions for a long while yet.
