Josh Cavallo, a young Australian footballer who became one of the first active players to reveal his homosexuality in October, said this weekend that he was the victim of homophobic abuse during a match.
Last October, Josh Cavallo received support from the football world after becoming the only player active today to come out. He then shared his emotion in the face of these reactions from around the world and hoped that the prejudices would finally end. But the reality on the ground is different. This weekend, the young man who plays in Australia, at the club Adelaide United, denounced the homophobic insults received earlier during a match against Melbourne. “I’m not going to pretend I didn’t see or hear of the homophobic abuse that was uttered during the game last night. There are no words to say how disappointed I am. As a society, it shows that we are still facing these issues in 2022. It should not be acceptable and we need to do more to hold these people accountable. Hate will never win. And I will never apologize for living my life as I am, ”he wrote in a post shared on social networks. And to add: “On platforms like Instagram and Twitter, I mean that I refuse that a child, or an adult, receives messages as hateful as those I have heard. I knew that revealing who I really am was going to do this. But it’s a sad reality that social media isn’t doing enough to stop these posts. ”
– Josh Cavallo (@JoshuaCavallo) January 9, 2022
“There is no place for bullying, harassment or abuse in football”
The Australian professional league said it was “shocked and saddened” to learn of the reports of “homophobic abuse”. “Our players, staff and fans have a right to feel safe on and off the pitch,” said APL CEO Danny Townsend. “There is no room for bullying, harassment or abuse in football in Australia and we have no tolerance for this harmful behavior.” The APL is working with the two clubs to investigate the incident and has promised to impose penalties on anyone involved. “We fully support Josh Cavallo and want to make sure he can focus on his football performances rather than vile abuse. We will continue to focus our efforts on creating safe and welcoming leagues for all. ”
Adelaide club general manager Nathan Kosmina said the Reds were “appalled” by the abuse. “Adelaide United are proud to be an inclusive and diverse football club, and to see one of our players being victim of anti-homophobic acts is disappointing and upsetting,” he said. “Josh continues to show tremendous courage and we join him in speaking out against abuse, which has no place in society and will not be tolerated by our club. We will continue to work with the Australian professional leagues and Melbourne Victory to identify perpetrators and prosecute them accordingly. ”
These incidents are reminiscent of the words of a Premier League player, who revealed anonymously in mid-October to be gay but was afraid to say so. “We are in 2021 and I should be free to be able to tell everyone who I am. But there are still fans in the stands who are stuck in the 1980s. I want to be able to say openly who I am and show that I am proud of it, to people. But the reality is that I would be crucified ”, he declared, questioned by the militant director Amal Fashanu for the“ Sun ”. The latter is the niece of the English player Justin Fashanu, who revealed his homosexuality in 1990 and committed suicide eight years later after being the victim of a homophobic campaign on the part of the fans but also of the sports community in general.
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