Pascal Kaiser attack and Borja Iglesias backlash spotlight LGBTIphobia ahead of 19 February | OneFootball

Referee Pascal Kaiser’s assault and the pile-on against Borja Iglesias have reignited football’s reckoning with LGBTIphobia ahead of 19 February.

According to El Periódico Mediterráneo, Kaiser, 27, was attacked after proposing to his boyfriend at Cologne’s RheinEnergieStadion, then reported threats as the video spread. In Spain, Iglesias’s painted nails drew a surge of homophobic abuse online.

The day recalls Justin Fashanu, the first male professional footballer to come out publicly in 1990. He faced deep hostility and died by suicide in 1998.

Men’s football still clings to narrow ideas of masculinity. David Lechón, who founded Zaragoza’s Asociación Deportiva Cierzo proLGTB+, says progress exists but much work remains.

Psychologists point to dressing-room codes that demand conformity, and to scrutiny from stands, social media and headlines. At elite level, Lechón says conservative club leadership can impose private pressures.

Is the women’s game different? Lechón believes discrimination is similar, but less visible because men’s football dominates coverage.

Carolina Bonel, 20, played in Zaragoza from eight to 17, saying coming out to team-mates was hard yet supported. Outside the pitch, she still hears claims that all female footballers are lesbians, a prejudice she wants tackled.

Progress is real, but deeper change is needed. Lechón argues leadership must shift and gestures must be backed by big, sustained campaigns, while Bonel senses growing respect and hopes players can come out without fear.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo