Rio Ferdinand: ‘I was part of the culture of homophobia in football. Then my life changed’-Sabrina Barr-Entertainment – Metro

Rio Ferdinand has opened up about the part he played in the culture of homophobia in football when he was playing professionally, stressing how important it is for people to become ‘educated’ on the issue.

In a documentary which came out in February this year, TV and radio presenter Rylan Clark – who first soared to fame on The X Factor in 2012 – explored the prevalence of homophobia in the world of football, among the fans and the players.

It’s been reported that on May 17, the date that marks the International Day Against Homophobia, a group of male professional footballers in Germany are planning on coming out as gay. There are currently no active male professional footballers in Germany who are openly gay.

Former German international Thomas Hitzlsperger, who came out as gay in 2014 a year after his retirement, talked about his experience in Rylan: Homophobia, Football and Me.

In the documentary, Rylan, 35, explained how he was always an avid West Ham fan throughout his childhood growing up in Stepney.

However, as he outlined on the programme, there are some people who have bizarrely questioned the notion of him being into the sport as a gay man.

Thomas Hitzlsperger revealed his sexuality to the public after he had retired from professional football (Picture: Paul Gilham/Getty Images)

Metro.co.uk recently had the chance to speak to former West Ham player Rio, 45, who had a powerful one-on-one conversation with Rylan on the TNT programme about the way his attitude towards the LGBT+ community has changed over the years.

The TNT Sports pundit explained that it was a no-brainer for him to be a part of the documentary, because ‘as a human, you have empathy for anybody who’s had struggles and situations they’ve had to overcome to get where they are in life’.

The documentary shines a spotlight on what the culture was like in professional football in the past, when the use of homophobic slurs in locker rooms was commonplace and not called out.

‘I’ll say quite openly that I was part of that culture,’ Rio said.

The former England star appeared in Rylan Clark’s new documentary about homophobia in football (Picture: Warner Bros Discovery/PA)

‘If you fast forward to today, there’s a lot of cancel culture around that type of stuff now. I’m not really a believer in cancelling people immediately. I think you have to give people at least that one opportunity to educate themselves, re-educate themselves and form an understanding of what they’ve maybe been a part of.’

The former England star continued: ‘I’m probably a good case in that sense. I don’t think it was hugely intentional, but it was just a culture that was there. That ignorance of not understanding the ramifications of being involved with certain slurs and certain cultures is you don’t take into consideration those things.’

Rio added that sometimes people need to be exposed to others from different communities so that they can start to form more of an ‘understanding’.

‘That’s why I think having those open and frank conversations on screen are vitally important if you’re gonna make the steps in the right direction,’ he said.

Rio began his professional football career at West Ham, the team that Rylan has supported since childhood (Picture: Phil Cole/Allsport/Getty Images)

A huge turning point in the football star’s life was when his sister came out as gay.

‘So that was a big turning point for my family, not even the culture of football, but in my household,’ he said, having created his own docu-series called Tipping Point to explore racism, homophobia and mental health issues in football.

Reflecting on the language that his sister might have heard him say in the past, Rio continued: ‘There were words that may have been used, that if anybody else had heard they would have gone, “Wow, what’s this about?” and it wouldn’t have been nice for the people to hear.

‘The culture within my own house growing up had to change.’

Speaking of his own family life, Rio’s son Lorenz, 17, has followed in his father’s footsteps to embark on a career in football, and is currently the goalkeeper for Brighton & Hove Albion’s under-18s team.

Rylan recalled in the documentary how on one occasion, he was beaten so badly that his skull was fractured (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Rex/Shutterstock)

When asked if he’s spoken to Lorenz about the homophobia in football, Rio answered: ‘We have a lot of conversations around all sorts of topics, we’re quite an open forum when we’re having feelings and stuff at our dinner table, which is good.

‘I can’t give you a specific time. But definitely it would have come up at some point where we did talk about it, definitely.’

Rio also shared an insight into what was it like speaking face-to-face with Rylan in the documentary, hearing about the homophobic experiences that the TV and radio star has had in his life as a football and West Ham fan.

‘I just think it’s an important conversation to have. Nobody should walk into a stadium anywhere around the world, and feel inadequate, not good enough or out of sorts, or in fear of being discriminated against,’ Rio affirmed.

‘I see that there are parallels with racism as well. A lot of the emotions that you then have, you can kind of draw the parallels sometimes with other forms of discrimination. So again, the empathy, you feel it straight away.’

Rio believes that demonstrations of prejudice should have punishment that ‘fits the crime’ (Picture: James Gill/Danehouse/Getty Images)

While football might still have a way to go until more players – both current and former – feel comfortable coming out and secure in the fact that they will be accepted and welcomed, Rio shared how he thinks things can progress in a positive direction in the future.

‘I just think that when there are things that happen that are out of line, they need to be punished properly. I think if people understand the punishments and the punishments fit the crime, then that’s a good start,’ he outlined.

‘But I think the starting point has to be education.

‘I think educating people on the LGBTQ community is a really good starting point because a lot of ignorance comes not knowing and not understanding, and I think if you can get people to have a better education and understanding of the community, then you’ve got a better chance of having people understand it more and not make stupid comments.’

Rylan: Homophobia, Football and Me is available to stream on discovery+.

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