Another angle has emerged n post-mortem contributions that are coming on behalf of Nigerian-born former England international striker, Justin Fashanu n community development and health efforts, as the late Aston Villa and Norwich City star’s family have launched assistance for homosexual players, megasportsarena.com reports.
Considering that Fashanu committed suicide, after feeling neglected and victimised due to his public confession of being a homosexual, a foundation has been set up in his name, to support any footballer that is in a similar situation, and five of such are now beneficiaries of the agency’s supportive efforts.
This is contained in a report out of England, which reveals that The Justin Fashanu Foundation is already providing counseling for five secretly gay footballers, two of which are from clubs in the English Premier League.
The players, who are said to be recognisable names n the game, and the other unnamed ones that turn out for lower division clubs, have all formally sought support from the organisation, which was established in memory of Justin, who killed himself in 1998, aged 37, eight years after coming out as Britain’s first gay player.
Details of the report by popular British tabloid, The Sun revealed that the stars have confided in some of their team-mates, before seeking help from the foundation, which noted that, since Justin’s passing, no professional footballers in the UK have spoken out as openly gay.
Throwing more light on the development Justin’s niece, Amal, who created the foundation last year, declared that other footballers will begin to reveal their sexualities over the coming years, while also expressing a strong belief that football supporters would be willing to understand gay players more than ever before.
Justin’s 30-year-old niece added that she is keen on initiating more of such ventures that would help the Fashanu family to continue to immortalize the late star, who was inducted into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Amal told The Sun: “No one wants to be the first. In their minds these guys are trapped, ashamed. They think society won’t accept it so instead they live their lives in secret. It’s sad that this has to happen, but they would be a trailblazer.
“The media would treat it differently now and I don’t think there would be a problem with fans. One in ten men are gay so the idea there aren’t lots playing football doesn’t add up.”
