Zeenews Sports Bureau
London: Outspoken footballer and QPR midfielder Joye Barotn feels strongly about gay footballers and blames the fears of team managers for homophobia in football.
JOEY Barton has spoken out in support of gay footballers — as he revealed his own uncle is homosexual in a TV documentary on Britain`s gay footballers.
“ Individuals within the game will discriminate against people. These archaic figures think if they had a gay footballer, they would have all kinds of shenanigans going on in the dressing room. That’s not the case. As I say it`s more fool them and their lack of social awareness and intelligence”, Barton was quoted as saying by ‘The Sun’.
He tells the show Britain`s Gay Footballers: "It`s a subject quite close to my heart because my dad`s youngest brother, the youngest of my uncles, is gay. And I didn`t know for a long, long time.
"He (Joey’s Uncle) thought because of the society that we were brought up in, which was quite working class, that it would be frowned upon or that we would disown him,” Barton was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
First Published: Monday, January 30, 2012, 08:11