Dutch gay footballers known for project planning ‘coming-out day’

NOS Football•today, 7:07 PM

The names of a number of Dutch football players who are homosexual and do not come out as gay are known to a German organization that stands up for the acceptance of gays and lesbians in football.

Marcus Urban, initiator of a project called ‘Sports Free’ where the Dutch players have registered, does not want to reveal who the football players are, how many players there are and which clubs they play for. Urban says this in the NOS podcast series The Shadow Spirewhich can be heard on April 29.

‘Sports Free’ is an organization that says it “fights for queer athletes in professional sports who still have to keep their identities hidden.” That group is large in the football world, Urban knows. He is in contact with groups of football players who are gay but do not dare to come out.

“I know who they are. I have also had Dutch names for a number of years. I had to make a list otherwise I would forget all the names,” Urban says in the podcast The Shadow Spire. Urban says that there are WhatsApp groups in various countries in Europe in which football players who are still in the closet communicate with each other.

“There are several WhatsApp groups with players in all kinds of countries,” says Urban, who was quite surprised by the number of football players who registered. “We don’t talk about coming out all the time, or not. We also have a lot of fun.”

Urban sees that young football players are also joining the group. “An interesting development. It is the new generation. They think about it in a different way.”

Coming out as a gay man is extremely rare in football, but on May 17, a group of footballers from Germany would be ready. The football players receive support from the ‘Sports Free’ project and from several prominent professional clubs at the highest German level. It is not known how large the group of footballers who want to come out is.

The collective coming out is scheduled for May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. It should be a starting signal, after which on the 17th of every month, athletes should feel supported to come out safely.

This initiative seems well-considered and very serious, so hopes are high.

Homosexuality is a persistent taboo in football. Only a handful of footballers worldwide have come out about their homosexuality, partly out of fear of reactions that could come from the football world.

The action on May 17 can be an important step towards acceptance, says Thijs Smeenk, board member of the Dutch John Blankenstein Foundation, a foundation that stands up for acceptance of gays and lesbians in Dutch top sport.

“We have had a number of coming outs in the past, but those players did it individually and this would be the first time that a group has come out,” Smeenk said at the NOS Radio 1 News on NPO Radio 1. “That would make it very powerful.”

“This initiative seems well-considered and very serious, so there is great hope. But there have been stories in the past that people would come forward and when the time came, it turned out to be something else. But in this In that case, it looks like it will happen. We just have to wait and see.

Smeenk is not surprised that an action like this is more likely to be organized in Germany than in the Netherlands. “Look at the fuss with the One Love band, captains not wanting to wear it and clubs not knowing what to do with it.”

“There is a lack of decisiveness in the Netherlands,” says Smeenk. “It’s different in Germany. There are six clubs that support the project and that is important for the players involved.” The clubs supporting the campaign – including with donations – are Bundesliga clubs Borussia Dortmund, FC Union Berlin, Hannover 96, VfB Stuttgart and SC Freiburg. Just like FC St. Pauli, which plays at the second level.

“Germany is certainly ahead if you compare it with the Netherlands. That has to do with policy and visibility. In the stadiums of the big clubs, for example at Bayern Munich, several flags of supporters’ associations fly behind the goal where the hard core is located. And a of those flags is the original rainbow flag. No one has anything against that. It is a group that really belongs.”

Projects such as the ‘Sports Free’ campaign have similar initiatives in Germany. For example, 800 German football players joined a campaign in support of LGBTI players in 2021.

Yet coming outs are also rare in Germany. The last German footballer to come out was 52-time international Thomas Hitzlsperger in 2014. The midfielder had already stopped playing football.

In February 2023, 27-year-old Czech international Jakub Jankto became the most famous footballer to come out so far. In a video message he shared that he is homosexual and came out because he “no longer wants to hide”. No footballer has ever come out of the closet in the Dutch competition.