Football Manager to include gay players

BBC News:

'Modern elite male British football is still waiting for its first openly gay player. Maybe Football Manager can help.

In this year's edition of the computer game, players come out.

"Part of the reason we decided to do this is because there are gay footballers," Miles Jacobson, the game's director, told BBC Sport.

"We know from the amount of professionals that there has to be players who are gay but feel they don't want to come out.

"I find it weird that it's still a problem in football so we decided to try and show people that coming out isn't a big deal and can be a positive thing.

"I just think it's crazy that in 2017 we are in a world where people can't be themselves."'

(http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/41796686)

The feature will introduce gay 'newgen' players (those generated by the game when existing 'real' players retire). Gamers will learn about these players coming out through news items in their inboxes as the game progresses, and the players' appearance in squads will open up new commercial revenue streams as LGBT fans take an interest in the club.

Regardless of the fact that the mechanism to include and highlight the existence of gay players in the game seems to me to be pretty clunky and offers nothing new in terms of playability, I think the software house and publishers have to be applauded in making an effort to push the issue of the acceptance of gay players in football.

As the spokesman in the BBC article has explained, the game itself cannot (and isn't attempting to) combat homophobia; the aim is normalisation. And the more we see open discussion of the issue, work to make football a more inclusive sport, and the open involvement of gay administrators, commentators, officials, fans, etc. the better.

There are an awful lot of football players at all levels, and even more fans, whose lives revolve around football but who don't feel like they can be their true selves in public due to the homophobia still widespread in society and ingrained in football culture. Any effort, regardless of how small, to help free the game from bigotry and drag it towards equality has to be welcomed IMO.