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Tuesday, February 18th, 2020

The late gay Brit footballer JUSTIN FASHANU is finally honored (by the FA who failed to support him when he was alive)

 

In the UK in the 1980’s the Fashanu Brothers were the golden boys of British soccer and JUSTIN FASHANU would go on to be the first black player to command a £1 million transfer fee.  However it was his younger brother JOHN that became the media darling, whilst Justin’s life was the subject of much nasty tabloid coverage because he was the first (and to this day only) openly gay professional British footballer.

When Justin’s career started to stall he moved to the US but his life there was brought to an abrupt halt when he was accused of having sex with a 18 year old.  On his return to London, estranged from his homophobic brother, Justin took his own life when he was just 37 years old.

Now 22 years after his death the very same Football industry that failed to support Justin when he was alive are about to induct him into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame.  Whilst it is a long overdue honor he deserved it is a great shame that these are the same people who failed to support him when the The Sun and other Tabloid newspapers didn’t just publicly outed him. but concocted s=me outrageous unsubstantiated stories about his personal life.

He continued to play football but no UK club would give him a full-time contract. And soccer fans shouted abuse at him. Even his brother John Fashanu described him as an ‘outcast’ in public.

It sadly says a lot about the UK Football Association there are  still no professional out gay football players in the UK. 

Justin’s legacy lives on in the Justin Fashanu Foundation, run by his neice Amal,  that fights to free football from discrimination and to improve youth mental health.  To us seems a much better way to honor him.

PS A few years ago a documentary called Forbidden Games: The Justin Fashanu Story was directed by ADAM DARKE & JON CAREY  and is now available streaming on AMAZON.


Posted by queerguru  at  22:11


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