Survey finds majority of UK soccer fans would welcome gay players

The overwhelming majority of UK soccer fans said they would be comfortable with their favorite club signing a gay player, according to a BBC survey.

ComRes conducted the online survey of more than 4,000 people for BBC Radio 5 that showed 82% of respondents said they’d have no issue if their soccer club had a gay player on the roster, but 8% of those who responded said they’d stop watching their team.

The survey was commissioned days after Greg Clarke, chairman the Football Association that serves as soccer’s governing body in England, told the House of Commons that he’d be "cautious of encouraging people to come out.”

Clarke told BBC Radio 5 live on Wednesday that he stood by those comments and it was his personal view that an out player would face “vile” treatment by a segment of fans.

Former Premier League forward Chris Sutton blasted Clarke’s standpoint, saying that the sport shouldn’t be "dictated to by 8% of cavemen".

“Coming out wouldn't be a problem in the workplace,” Sutton said. “Working at a football club is just like anywhere else. Players I played with wouldn't bat an eyelid.”

The English Premier League has never had an active openly gay player and only one pro British soccer player, Justin Fashanu, came out during his career. Fashanu committed suicide in 1998 amidst sexual assault charges in Howard County, Maryland, where he was coaching at the time.

Fashanu, the first black player to secure a million-pound contract, denied the accusations and said he wouldn’t get a fair trial because he was gay, according to the suicide note he left.

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