TIE’s Anti-Homophobia Football Project to Feature in Rylan Clark Documentary
TIE’s Anti-Homophobia Football Project to Feature in Rylan Clark Documentary
The documentary ‘Rylan: Homophobia, Football and Me’ will be shown on TNT Sports 1 at 10:30pm on Tuesday, February 13 and explores homophobia in men’s football across the UK, featuring interviews with former and current players, including Rio Ferdinand and Thomas Hitzlsperger.
We have been delivering anti-homophobia workshops to secondary school pupils and players in youth academies and have worked with football clubs including St Mirren, who feature in the documentary, Livingston, Celtic and Rangers. These workshops are delivered in collaboration with Zander Murray – who made headlines in 2022 when he became the first male Scottish senior player to come out as gay – through a partnership with the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) Scotland and explores the impact of homophobia on players and fans.
Challenging Homophobia in Football, Football Club Workshop
Challenging Homophobia in Football, Football Club Workshop
“This new documentary highlights the extent and impact of homophobia in men’s football across the UK, a phenomenon that we know is still pervasive through our engagement with young players.
The work that we are currently doing in both the grassroots game and professional academies is focused on driving a culture change within the sport by educating players about the impact of homophobic language and behaviour.
This work can build the foundations for LGBT players of future generations to be able to be out and visible in the sport without fear of any negative reactions.”
Liam Stevenson, Co-Founder and Director
Time for Inclusive Education
236 boys who played in youth academies took part in an evaluation of the project’s impact, and while 71% said that they heard homophobic language used in their footballing life, 95% reported that they would no longer use homophobic language and derogatory slurs about LGBT people after participating in the workshops.
One participant wrote that their key learning moment was “to make a stance against homophobia in and outside of football”, while another said that they thought the sessions and hearing Zander’s own story would have “a majorly positive impact” and help the next generation of young footballers to “realise that there’s nothing wrong with being gay”.
“I never thought that I would be able to be a confident, out gay footballer, and I went through a lot of difficulty to get to this point - and I am now committed to being a role model for other players.
Homophobia and negative language in the game had a massive impact on me. The goal of sharing my story with young players is for the next generation to be the ones who stand up against homophobia once and for all, and make sure that football really can be the beautiful game for everyone, including LGBT players and fans.”
Zander Murray
Research published by the Professional Footballers’ Association monitoring online abuse of players during the 2020/21 season found that homophobia was the most common form of online discriminatory abuse targeting UK professional footballers.
Our project will continue to be delivered throughout this year, with plans in place to expand the service offer for secondary school football teams.
If you are interested in more information about booking our ‘Challenging Homophobia In Football’ workshop for your football club or for your secondary school, please get in touch here.
‘Rylan: Homophobia, Football and Me’ will air on TNT Sports 1 at 10:30pm on February 13. Further information about the documentary is available here.
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