Homosexuality in Football

Lately racism has been one of the biggest topics in the world of football. It's a big problem and even with all the campaigns etc there still is a new racism scandal nearly every day. Racism is a huge issue and I definitely understand why UEFA needs to pay so much attention to it. However what I've been wondering lately is that how long will it take until Uefa is going to pay attention to another problem in football, homophobia. I'm guessing it will take a long time since I don't know if everyone even sees it as a problem yet. But I do have to say that I think it's so admirable that for example Mario Gomez has talked about it even though it's still such a taboo.

 There was this funny article that I read on the Daily Mail website about how football needs a gay hero and how Joey Barton would be perfect for that "job". I don't know about Joey Barton's sexual orientation, but I do agree that a so called "gay hero" could really change many people's opinions on homosexuality, or at least make them think about it a little more. It would be interesting to see what happened if a beloved football star came out of the closet. Would all the homophobic fans just stop supporting him or could it actually make a change? I think that in that situation the teams and other players would play a big part in how the news would be accepted. If the team and the fellow players would have the homosexual player's back, a real change could happen. 

I do believe that it will take time before football is ready to fight against homophobia, but i think it's very positive that people have started to talk about it. Maybe one day the biggest football idol can be gay and people won't even care. I sure hope so!