YORK City supporter Joe Haining has applauded his club’s move to create a welcoming environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender fans at Bootham Crescent.

The Minstermen have chosen this afternoon’s home match with Southend to promote the Football v Homophobia campaign.

As a consequence, 100 tickets for the game have been donated to the local LGBT community through York Pride and members of the Yorkshire Terriers, one of the UK’s first gay-friendly football teams, have also been invited.

City’s players, meanwhile, will warm up in Football v Homophobia T-shirts and a large rainbow flag will be presented on the pitch before kick-off by the ball boys and girls.

Haining – a gay City fan who has been watching matches in the David Longhurst Stand since the late 1980s – does not believe homophobia is a major issue at Bootham Crescent and most other grounds in the country.

He does feel progress can still be made, however, to make football spectating a less intimidating experience for LGBT supporters.

Haining said: “It’s very good and quite brave that the club are having this day of action. There was some negativity when the club last did something like this, so it’s very good that York City want to stay at the forefront on this matter.

“I have been looking at the Red and Blue website’s message board recently and, while people have not been openly hostile to the idea of a Football v Homophobia game, there has been some negative reaction. Some people don’t think there’s a problem and I understand that.

“It’s not like Brighton where, last season, there was homophobic abuse and chanting at 75 per cent of their games. At most other grounds, it’s more about the derogatory terms that are associated with homophobia that you hear.

“People don’t consider them offensive but it’s not really acceptable to use them and there needs to be an awareness of where the line is between what’s offensive and what isn’t. These terms can make people feel awkward, a bit upset, offended and unable to defend themselves.

“I’m not very sensitive but, if there are a lot of homophobic comments being chucked around, you can think ‘Give it a rest’. We have to keep things in perspective though.

“There is not a big problem and it’s also important that football doesn’t become sanitised because the songs and humour at football stadiums are a big part of the game’s appeal.”

Haining feels the educational work being undertaken by Football v Homophobia will also greatly complement the support shown to the campaign by City and 24 other Football League clubs this month.

He added: “The days of action are great but probably more important is that a DVD is being shown to players at professional clubs’ academies. I think people need more education about homophobia and, maybe, that could be addressed in schools as well, because raising awareness is always the best way of achieving progress.

“Brighton have worked hard to cut out the homophobic chanting at their games and there has been much less this season. I think, in general, once people are aware that what they are doing is wrong, they will stop.”

Contrary to the views expressed by former Irish rugby international Neil Francis this month that “gay people have very little interest in sport”, the Football v Homophobia campaign has proven also that a person’s sexuality does not determine their level of enthusiasm for football.

“During this month of action, there have been a number of new gay supporters’ clubs appearing,” Haining explained. “They have emerged at clubs like Norwich, Arsenal, Manchester City, Everton, Spurs and Ipswich and it’s good if people are finding support through those channels and feel safer together.

“You don’t want things to become divisive though.

Everybody has to interact fully, otherwise the whole thing will fail.

“I am a massive football fan and I would like to think absolutely anybody, from any walk of life, could feel they can come down to York City and have a good day out, even if what’s happening on the pitch is not that great, because we are pretty decent folk at Bootham Crescent.”

In the light of several former professionals coming out after retiring from football, Haining added today’s generation of players should not fear following suit while they are still playing the game.

“People seem to be saying that it might be difficult in the dressing room,” Haining said of the arguments surrounding the prospect of a top player declaring their homosexuality publicly. “From what you hear players saying, though, it wouldn’t be a problem so it might just be case of footballers being nervous.

“I don’t think there would be that much abuse or chanting. It’s not like when Justin Fashanu came out in the 1980s.

“Nobody was defending him, not even his manager or team-mates, when he was being abused. I can’t imagine that happening now and the player would be given the full support of everybody at a club.

“I don’t think British people, in this day and age, are too bothered if somebody is gay or not. The reaction was pretty much ‘so what?’ when Tom Daley came out and that’s good.”

City manager Nigel Worthington and communications director Sophie Hicks are also giving Football v Homophobia their full backing.

“Hopefully, we are getting to the stage in society where we can let people live their lives how they want to,” Worthington reasoned. “It’s about individual and collective respect for everybody in terms of who they want to be and what they want to be.”

Hicks added: “At York City, we feel we have an obligation as an employer to ensure we create a safe, supportive environment for our players, youth players and staff should they wish to publicly come out. As a sport, we have to reach a position where sexuality is just not an issue.”


Goal star sentinel’s magic month

JOHN McCOMBE has won The Press February Player of the Month award despite this afternoon’s game still counting towards the standings.

The former Mansfield defender picked up his third consecutive Press man-of-the-match award following his two-goal display during the 4-0 win at Plymouth.

He received three points towards the contest for that accolade, along with another two for receiving the most online and Twitter man-of-the-match votes.

Josh Carson (two) and Wes Fletcher (one) collected the other points on offer as our second and third-highest rated players respectively in Devon.

To be in with a chance of presenting McCombe with his February Player of the Month prize – a framed photograph – before a game at Bootham Crescent, vote for your man of the match from today’s game with Southend or tweet your choice to @daveflettpress

The Press Player of the Year latest standings: Carson 21 points, Fletcher 21, Lowe 21, McGurk 18, Oyebanjo 17, O’Neill 14, Brobbel 11, Montrose 11, McCombe 10, Jarvis 9, Parslow 8, Ingham 7, Pope 7, Smith 7, Coulson 6, Bowman 5, Chambers 5, Davies 5, Clay 4, Penn 4, Puri 2, Whitehouse 2, Kettings 1.

The Press Player of the Month for February latest standings: McCombe 11, Carson 4, Penn 3, Lowe 2, Oyebanjo 2, Coulson 1, Fletcher 1.

Goals: Fletcher 13, Jarvis 9, Bowman 6, Carson 4, Brobbel 3, McCombe 2, Own goals 2, Coulson 1, McGurk 1, Montrose 1, O’Neill 1.

Assists: Coulson 7, Bowman 5, O’Neill 5, Carson 4, Brobbel 3, Fletcher 3, Jarvis 3, Clay 2, McGurk 2, Smith 2, Cresswell 1, Davies 1, Fyfield 1, Hayhurst 1, Ingham 1, Montrose 1, Oyebanjo 1.

Bad boys: Montrose ten yellow cards; Oyebanjo, Whitehouse both six yellow; Carson, O’Neill, Lowe, Smith all four yellow; Bowman two red, one yellow; McGurk three yellow; Cresswell one red, one yellow; Davies, Fyfield, Jarvis, McCombe, Penn, Platt all two yellow; Chambers, Clay, Coulson, Hayhurst, Parslow, Reed all one yellow.