Casillas 'hacking' shows ongoing homophobia in football

Former Spain and Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas has apologised to the LGBTQ+ community, blaming a ‘hacked account’ for a tweet which announced he was gay.

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By Sam Feierabend.

The tweet read, ‘I hope you respect me: I’m gay’, which was initially met with mostly praise and acceptance across the globe. Such a high profile coming out would have been a huge step for the footballing world, which has grappled with a homophobia problem for decades.

Just hours later however, the tweet had been deleted. Spanish media initially reported that, in response to a divorce earlier this year, Casillas was rumoured to be dating a number of women since this. They claimed that it was an ill-judged joke to poke fun at the media for interfering personally with his love life.

Seemingly embroiled in the saga is Casillas’ former Spain teammate, Carles Puyol, who replied to the original tweet with, ‘It’s time to tell our story Iker.’ The pair were instrumental in Spain’s triumph at the 2010 World Cup and have been long-standing friends. It is unclear if this a collaborated joke that Puyol was playing along with or if Puyol himself was coming out as gay.

Upon deleting the tweet, Casillas responded ‘Hacked account. Luckily everything in order. Apologies to my followers and of course, more apologies to the LGBT community’. Nonetheless, the damage was done. Comments in the original tweet were littered with homophobic abuse, which shows that football has not stamped out homophobia from the sport.

Just last year, Josh Cavallo, playing in Australia’s A-League, became the first active professional footballer to come out as gay; a massive step for acceptance and equality in the sport. He called Casillas’ actions ‘disappointing’, adding how difficult it already is for members of the LGBTQ+ community to be accepted in football. With a sheer number of professional footballers worldwide, it is inevitable that there are many who are part of this community who perhaps fear backlash if they were to come out. Homophobic slurs in the stands and on social media are still common, which creates a hostile environment for someone to come out in.

Football as a sport has been riddled with homophobia for a number of decades. Justin Fashanu became the first ever footballer to come out as gay in 1990, but was immediately outcast by fans and managers alike, before taking his own life in 1998. Since then, the media and fans alike have become obsessed with ‘finding’ the next gay footballer in a witch hunt fashion. Footballers such as Graham Le Saux and Sol Campbell have been subject to media rumours due to aspects of their personal lives not being seen as ‘manly' enough. Le Saux collected antiques, which some perceived as a non-heterosexual quality.

In 2010, the Premier League attempted to launch a campaign that would discourage homophobia in the stands, but no player agreed to appear in the video in fear that they would be associated with homosexuality.

The fake witch hunt put out by the British media was ended earlier this year as Jake Daniels of Blackpool FC became the first player in the English game since Fashanu to come out while still playing. He is only the 4^th footballer to have played in England that has openly come out; Robbie Rogers and Thomas Hitzlsperger came out only after their careers ended.

The main worry from LGBTQ+ footballers is not the response of other players or managers, but instead it is the abuse from the fans that is a deterrent. Consequently, more effort needs to be putting in to removing homophobia from the sport as it is with other forms of abuse. This will create a safe environment for players to express their sexuality without having to worry about abuse.

The Casillas incident also brings about another issue. In his career Casillas lifted the FIFA World Cup, a tournament that kicks off next month in Qatar. The Middle Eastern state currently has anti-gay laws in place, and it is completely illegal to be homosexual. If caught, 'offenders' are sentenced to prison, with some even being executed. When asked about this, and the potential of gay-rights activism at the tournament, multiple people in charge of Qatar have claimed that it is an inclusive tournament but ‘You must respect our laws’. This seems an ominous warning, where a symbol such as a rainbow flag could lead some fans to be arrested and jailed.

At a time when football needs to unite against homophobia in the midst of the Qatar World Cup, what has happened on Iker Casillas’ Twitter will not help. It is giving a pass for homophobes, telling them that it is acceptable to joke about someone’s sexuality when that could not be further from the truth.