‘It’s a very conservative industry’ | Relief

In men’s football, sexual status is a taboo, a barrier that has yet to be overcome. In recent weeks in Germany several players were expected to come out of the closet at the same time and a date was even set for this, but that page was torn out of the calendar and everything remained the same.

Those who have ever tried to normalize homosexuality in the elite understand what has happened because it is the same story as always, football resists this move tooth and nail. Miguel Angel Lopez, who was the director, knows this Zero between 2002 and 2008, an LGBT-themed magazine that, among other things, published covers featuring people coming out of the closet from worlds such as the army or the clergy. He didn’t succeed in football, and it wasn’t because he didn’t try..

“We have been in contact with clubs, players’ representatives and in some cases lay mediators, family or friends. The experience was unsuccessful, football is a very conservative industry.,he is very protected and there has always been a lot of fear before any positioning at all. There is a very strong conservatism here, especially promoted by the boards of directors and the professionals who surround the players, the representatives,” explains the former magazine director, who has personal contact with the sport, having been a basketball referee.

They turned to the main teams in Spain, but found rejection and misunderstanding. “There is an anecdote that reminded me a lot of what happens in some countries where they say there are no homosexuals. Real Madrid’s director of communications wrote to us scared because he had heard about our work regarding some players and He warned us that there are no homosexual players at Real Madrid.. The next paragraph of this letter, which seemed like a joke, said that if any, we are not authorized to make public the sexual status of the players,” Lopez says. This happened in 2006.

There are, of course, homosexuals in football. This is not just a statistical question, the logic of thinking that their geography is not so different from society that they don’t exist is something testable because, in essence, Zeror He was close to overcoming this barrier. “We worked through the Basque photographer Pablo Usabiaga, a photographer who works in different fields, not particularly in sports, but he had many friends in the world of football. This was one of our most direct approaches to this issue, because He had friends and acquaintances who, although in principle they were Real Sociedad and Athletic players, through other friends or acquaintances were already Three or four other main Spanish teams took part in them. Especially Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid.“, He says.

To understand just how resistant football is, former director Zero tells the idea of ​​the report they proposed to the players. Remember, this was a magazine that made soldiers and priests talk normally about their sexual state, but in football they soon realized that this was impossible, so they chose a different path. “We spoke to a number of players There were exactly three homosexuals and four or five more homosexuals, but they had to appear in the report.because the idea was to do a choral report that would talk about homosexuality in football and it was not a traditional coming out of the closet as it was very difficult for the players, the representatives, the family and especially the club to be accepted and resolved “

The failure to publish this report places a psychological burden on those who were willing to come clean at the time. “Of course there was disappointment, every cover that came back was a disappointment. because although it is a very difficult step, because of the media problem you become a target for life, at the same time it is something very liberating and allows you to get out of all kinds of lies that you are placed or have been placed in. Not just footballers, but also politicians who were forced into marriage or a series of lies to create a parallel image. This was known among some politicians and it also happened in football. Of course there is disappointment. These were committed people retiring from their careers and it was a shame for them, I don’t know the extent of the disappointment, but I know that it bothered them because they wanted to take this step not only for themselves, but for themselves. also for being exemplary,” he recalls.

metrosexuality

“A lot has changed in the clubs, it has been a months-long effort and expectations have been created that continue to this day.“, says Miguel Angel Lopez. It is logical that the former director Zero He never said and will never say the title of this work. “It’s not just in Spain, football in general is a very complex sport, it has remained completely alien and sealed off from other realities, especially from club owners, boards and sponsors. It’s not that sponsors didn’t do it, because that happened in the world of cinema or advertising, but not in football or sports in general,” says Lopez.

There are a number of doubts in all this that will only be resolved when someone takes a step. Can the first be something commercially positive at all? “Gouti and some others tried it, I don’t know if it was because it was already the end of their career, because it was fashionable to be a little metrosexual. There are players like him who collaborated with “Zero”, we did different campaigns, campaigns… in this profile, heterosexuals, metrosexuals.. At some point it seemed that this was not a hindrance, but could give a return, but in the end the industry’s opinion prevailed,” he notes.

There are groups in football who may not be in the majority but are loud enough to influence the conversation. “The fans’ reaction is alarming. If we’re in 2024 and we have fields where black players are screamed at like monkeys and racism still exists, what should we expect? There are small hobby groups that pull the rest of us down, and I think they create this fear and conservatism,” he says.

Miguel Angel Lopez left Zero A lot of time has passed since 2008, but looking back, he recalls that this work was not about morbidity or exposure for the sake of exposure. The goal was different, the striking aspect of the performances was just a tool for achieving the greater good: “After so many covers, after a few years we saw that although it was indeed traumatic for some in the beginning, They are grateful for their personal liberation and the contribution they have made to the normalization and mirror effect on young people and society.. Suddenly you become part of a better society, it seems like empty words, but it’s reality.”