Italian Soccer Never Sounded So Homophobic

by Michael Jones · 2009-08-26 13:00:00 UTC
Topics:

Lippi

The coach who led Italy to win the 2006 World Cup in soccer has a message for openly gay soccer players: go play something else instead.

Marcello Lippi, the coach of Italy's national soccer team, went on record to say that openly gay soccer players would be bad for morale, create conflict among team members, and be perceived negatively by fans.  But, of course, he doesn't want anyone accusing him of being homophobic.

Lippi told an Internet television program that he would purposely not choose openly gay players to play on his soccer team.  This comes after comments previously made by Lippi where he said that no gay people play soccer, and that in his 40 years of coaching, he's never met anyone gay.  And if you believe that, I think Lippi's got a bridge to sell you....

Meanwhile, Italian LGBT organization Arcigay blasted Lippi for fueling the type of homophobia that has made sports culture - particularly international soccer - so damaging for LGBT people.

"We are tired of hearing politicians, singers and coaches who fuel... a climate that is by now poisoned by fear and suspicion," Arcigay folks said.  "We don't want to be afraid any more, and we hope that people in the public eye will have the courage to affirm the dignity of everyone to live their own lives, their relations and loves in broad daylight."

Lippi's comments come just two weeks after a survey found that soccer, specifically in the U.K. but also throughout Europe, is "institutionally homophobic" and that fans regularly use anti-LGBT insults to characterize their opponents.  Nothing like having a major public figure and coach like Lippi reinforce that survey with boneheaded comments straight out of the 1930s.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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