Fashanu farce misses golden opportunity

Whilst I’m sure most of you will be glued to Sky Sports News as I write this, desperately hoping for Jim White to appear on screen outside your club’s stadium and reveal an exciting new signing, I want to move away from deadline day drama and take a look at last night’s BBC3 documentary Britain’s Gay Footballers.

Justin Fashanu, Amal's uncle

Presented by John Fashanu’s daughter Amal, the programme aimed to shine a light on why there are no openly gay footballers in Britain. It featured interviews with professional footballers past and present, famous comedians and football supporters. Amal also managed to score an interview with Anton Hysen, Europe’s only openly gay professional footballer. 

So what did we learn from it? Well apart from how not to construct a sensible documentary, not a lot. In short, the show was a shambles. Whilst the Twitterati and sections of the mainstream media queued up to be seen as supporting a show with such honourable intentions, its execution was appalling. 

Fashanu seemed to have conducted little research on issue, outside of the admittedly sizeable experiences of her own family - Amal's uncle Justin came out as gay before committing suicide in 1998. The questions and the subjects they were put to were lazily sourced, such as the decision to head to Brighton to interview their supporters on homophobic chanting. And her complete failure to comprehend cultural differences between 30 years ago and the present day gave the show an unseemly culturally superior sneer.

I feel so strongly because homophobia in football is an issue that warrants sensible debate. The crux of Fashanu’s show - that surely there must be at least on homosexual footballer amongst 4,000 professionals in the country - is one worth exploring. But it was done in such a sensationalist, arrogant way that it offered nothing of value to the debate.

The way Fashanu approached the issue was to try and track down a gay footballer and reveal them to the nation on TV. Or as some people call this, start a witch hunt. She visited Millwall to ask if any of the players were gay, interviewed Max Clifford - you know, the renowned football expert - and anyone else willing to tolerate the inane question: do you know a gay footballer? Such was Fashanu’s determination, one could expect her to punch the air in delight if she managed to convince a League Two reserve team player to confess to having a Kylie Minogue album, following three days of water boarding.

It wasn’t a very subtle approach to the issue and brought the debate down to its most simplistic terms. It’s almost as if the conclusion was written before the analysis; that football is too hostile a game for any footballer to ever come out, and the governing bodies and clubs are just as culpable as the fans. Society has moved on, but football hasn’t.

I personally think this is an unfair judgement. Whilst I accept that the game has a macho persona and is intrinsically linked to male subcultures such as casuals, I don’t think it’s accurate to suggest that there is huge swell of homosexual football supporters and players that feel they have been locked out of the game by machismo and prejudice.

Without straying into “some of my best friends are black” territory, of all the gay people I know, not a single one has any interest in football. They may humour me by asking the odd question about West Ham, but it’s out of politeness rather than a genuine interest. They certainly don’t harbour any unfulfilled ambitions to play the game, nor rage against the cruel way in which they are effectively barred from English stadia. For want of a more eloquent phrase, they simply don’t give a shit about football.

I feel the programme was a classic case of applying general societal attitudes to the population with the broadest of brushes. For example, Fashanu was at pains to point out that one in 10 people is gay in the UK, so by law of averages, there must be at least one gay player in each team. Woefully, she seemed to mistake this logic for fact and used it as the basis for her witch hunt. 

But I feel she would have better explained the lack of homosexuals in football by gauging the attitude of the gay community. How did they feel about watching football? About hearing certain songs at games? About their desire to be more involved? All questions that may have gone some way to answering the question of why there are no openly gay players in the game, as opposed to Fashanu’s sixth form media studies approach to documentary making.

In my own view, there aren’t any openly gay footballers in this country because there are so few, if any, playing the game professionally. I say this not from a prejudicial perspective, but from the perspective that by and large gay men aren’t attracted to the game of football, whether at a young age or as adults. If people find this view offensive, I fear they have missed the point completely. It's not that I don't believe a footballer could be gay, of course they could; I just don't think that many gay people would be sufficiently interested in the game to carve out a career in it. 

At the moment, the debate is far too narrow. It is concentrated on revealing who the footballers that are keeping their sexuality secret are, not whether the game is as inclusive as it could be. There is much the game could do to make stadia and clubs more welcoming in general. This means catering better for women, children, ethnic minorities and yes, gay people. That doesn’t mean changing the whole culture of football - another thing Fashanu seemed to want to happen - it just means removing any barriers that could dissuade a section of society attending football. 

Unfortunately, Fashanu and many others completely miss this point and in doing so, miss an opportunity to explore how football can become a more inclusive game.

Big worries over Big Sam

Firstly, a belated happy new year to one and all. With more allegations of racism within our stadia, a pulsating Manchester derby and a managerial casualty already under our belts, 2012 has started with a bang. Oh and, West Ham have been knocked out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle. Predictably.

Hammers enjoying a steady start

Given the Hammers’ push for promotion, a potentially distracting cup run is probably not what the club needs right now. Last season, with the club almost permanently in the bottom three, West Ham went all the way to extra time in the semi-final of the League Cup, only to lose the tie and eventually their Premier League status too. So whilst us nostalgics will never cheer an FA Cup exit, I doubt very much Big Sam will be shedding a tear.

But what of Big Sam? Having completed just over half the season, he has led West Ham to second place, level with league leaders Southampton and busily searching for the reinforcements that could secure one of those coveted automatic promotion places come May. Considering we are yet to really get out of third gear, surely the first half of Big Sam’s inaugural season as West Ham season must be viewed as a success?

Well yes and no. No-one can deny that Allardyce has made West Ham a tougher and stronger proposition than any of the club’s fans can ever remember them being. Opposition managers now talk about how difficult West Ham make it for teams to play, or of how when playing the Hammers, you know you’re going to be in for a battle. As a club historically known almost as much for its soft centre as its links to an old ironworks, this kind of talk has baffled supporters throughout the season.

Big Sam has also managed to remedy the club’s woeful away form. From a team that struggled to win as much as a throw-in away from home last season, West Ham - along with Middlesbrough - have now so far won the most away fixtures in the Championship - seven. For the first time in many a year, Hammers travelling up and down the country to follow their team are having something to cheer on a Saturday afternoon.

And who can argue with the club’s standing in the Championship? At just over halfway, West Ham are perfectly poised: already in one of the two automatic promotion places and looking to kick on and secure their return to the Premier League at the first time of asking. The brief was promotion and at this stage, Big Sam looks set to deliver for his employers.

But all has not been rosy in Big Sam’s big West Ham garden. As I wrote here at the start of the season, I was more worried about the impact of Allardyce’s success than his failure. I was concerned his muscular style would rip out the fabric of the club; making West Ham the type of team that the opposition found it difficult to play against, or had to beat in a battle before they could even think about winning the game. True to form, that is exactly what Allardyce has done.

Many West Ham fans are pleased with this transformation. They were sick of watching their team get rolled over home and away and welcome Big Sam’s ruthless approach. We’re now difficult to beat, we’re big and strong and no-one relishes playing the Hammers, when in previous years they would have sensed blood and eyed an easy three points.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not going to complain about being difficult to beat, and I am certainly not going to complain about being second in the league. But having watched half a season of some of the worst football I have ever seen from a West Ham side, I still have concerns about the direction Allardyce is taking the club.

Supporters of other clubs will think this ridiculous I’m sure. They will argue that the only direction that matters when in the Championship is upwards, and ensuring promotion. Style, they will probably say, comes a very poor second to substance.

But those supporters of other clubs have probably not had to watch the kind of football we have at Upton Park this season. Lacking in width, creativity and often a pass less than 40 yards in length and height, it has certainly not been pretty. It’s the kind of football we might have expected from an Allardyce team, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch, or should I say endure.

My concern is that if successful and promotion is achieved, Allardyce will be heralded a hero. His football ideology will be considered a blueprint for success and the Hammers will almost certainly approach the task of surviving in the Premier League using the same brash style of football that got them into it. 

And what then of the club? A club that still has ambitions of swapping its tightly packed and intimidating home to renting the bowl-shaped Olympic Stadium. A club that has prided itself not on winning at all costs, but on the way it entertains its public.

I realise to many this will all seem laughably romantic at best, and pathetically naïve at worst. But as football supporters, we are in it for the long haul. We have seen good and bad times, and will see them again. And as Hammers fans, it’s likely that we’ll see more bad than good. So forgive me if hanging desperately on to the club’s traditions seems twee, but with failure only ever round the corner with West Ham, its our traditions that make us the club we are and the reason we keep going back.

I’m still firmly behind the team of course and am looking forward to what promises to be an exciting end to the season. Hopefully it ends with the Hammers crowned champions having adopted a Barcelona-like passing game, following Sam Allardyce’s chance meeting with Pep Guardiola in an East End pub one lonely Tuesday night. And like my dreams they fade and die….