Player Given Straight Red For Homophobic Language

Norwegian football is cracking down on homophobic language and taking it seriously as Baerum SK’s Simen Juklerod recently found out.

Arsenal Support Anti-Homophobia Campaign

After that last disheartening story about racism in sport, here comes a bit of good news on another front. Gay rights group Stonewall along with Paddy Power and the Gay Football Supporters’ Network have launched this year’s Rainbow Laces campaign with a little help from Arsenal.

St. Pauli Supports LGBT Community

German second division club St. Pauli announced that as of today, they will permanently fly the rainbow flag symbolizing gay pride in their Hamburg stadium. 

Mid-day Update

Okay, it’s only mid-day because I never seem to make it to bed until the wee hours. Here’s a couple of things and more later.

Calleti & Marta were snapped in Napoli where he underwent a physical today. I’m sure the pictures of his contract signing, etc. will be out soon. (Via @NapoliSphera)

Training, A Luncheon, Juan Mata Profile & More

I’m leaving for the airport in an hour or so if I can peel Max the Cat off me. He’s very sad. I hate leaving him behind but he’s not a beach sort of cat! Maisougio will be your daily Perv Concierge while I’m sunning my rivaling-Iker-Casillas-pallor in Mexico for a couple of days with watishista P. So this will be a drive by. The day has been textbook Lozil thus far. I tripped over my suitcase earlier and nearly knocked myself out. Never fails. I am the world’s biggest klutz. So I’ll be starting the vacation bruised but hopefully I’ve gotten all the drama out of the way. If I owe you an email, please forgive me – I’m totally behind on work, packing, everything. I’ll get on it when I return next week.

The team trained again today and the good news is that Mesut was back with them – hooray! Looks like he’ll be just fine for the final on Friday.

Twenty-Twenty-Twenty Four Hours To Go I Wanna Be Sedated

I’ll give you 2 guesses as to whose bulbous badonk that is. Not that you’ll need it!

I’m so not ready. How about you? Lots of stuff to look at today, so I’ll spread it between 2 posts. First up, training!

Robbie Rogers In The Press

Robbie Rogers by Tom Jenkins/Guardian

Out former ‘baller Robbie Rogers was the subject of two great articles today in the Guardian and New York Times which talked about his coming out and the aftermath. Sam Borden from NYT also chatted with Robbie via video.

Zenit Fan Club Landscrona Pull The Old “I’m Not Racist But…”

Sadly, they really, really are. Add to that a hefty dose of homophobia and xenophobia to make a potent cocktail of utter fuckery.

UPDATED: Thank You, Toronto FC, DC United & Dutch FA!

I was delighted to see Toronto FC had made a video for the wonderful You Can Play Project which works to create a safe environment for gay athletes. Their motto is direct: “If you can play, you can play.” And it should be that simple, shouldn’t it? Sadly it’s not. Toronto FC’s spot is terrific and multilingual. I really wish more teams would make videos like this.

Hot Chip & Footy Man Love, FTW

Hot Chip’s new video for Don’t Deny Your Heart is full of awesomeness. Would that the Manchester derby turned out this amicable in real life, eh? I can imagine it’s going to make some jaws drop, but fuck it, Hot Chip has always been upfront about their support of the gay, lesbian, bi and transgender community so people can just deal.

– Lozil