A play coming to York Theatre Royal next month has been adopted by the FA to tackle the problem of homophobia in football. Steve Pratt reports.

Geordie actor and Newcastle fan Deka Walmsley is centre stage at the Football Association's London offices talking about the trials and tribulations of being manager of a struggling club in the lower half of the league.

He reports that placard-carrying fans are parading outside the ground, baying for his blood after he's been spotted kissing the club's 17-year-old new signing.

Walmsley is only playing a part - George manages fictional Northbridge Town - in a new play, Gaffer!, currently in rehearsal at York Theatre Royal. But the problem of homophobia in football is a real one, causing the FA to adopt Chris Chibnall's play as part of a campaign to tackle the issue.

This marriage of theatre and sport is an odd one. No-one involved with Gaffer! wants the homophobia angle to overpower the play, which deals with the many and varied pressures facing a modern football manager.

"We talk about where George came from - his experience as a player, how he got injured and became a manager. There are issues a manager has to deal with now that they didn't 20 years ago," explains Chibnall, in London for the launch of the campaign yesterday.

"Homophobia is the last taboo in football and for a dramatist it's a gift. The FA read the script for authenticity and gave a few pointers where we had gone wrong."

The FA's endorsement came as a complete surprise as he hadn't written Gaffer! with any didactic intention. But the FA's Football For All campaign, run by the Ethics and Sports Equity Department, saw it as an ideal vehicle for an admittedly low key start in increasing awareness of homophobic attitudes within the game.

Lucy Faulkner, the Football For All manager, admits that the FA doesn't know the extent of the problem. She hopes the publicity and follow-up workshops surrounding the play will be the first step in stamping it out.

This follows the department's work opposing racism and other forms of abuse, as well as disability in football. "It's about the FA's commitment to promoting equality in football. What this is about is us taking leadership of the issue, saying that abuse and discrimination are no part of football," she says.

"Football is the national game and is open and welcome to all members of the community."

The campaign is about raising the issue, not inviting players to come out. Attitudes of players and spectators alike have not encouraged gay footballers to talk about their sexuality. If they do, they face abuse from opposing teams, perhaps even their fellow players, and the fans.

The only mainstream player to come out was Justin Fashanu, who killed himself in 1998 over the pressures he faced. A star player like David Beckham can appear on the cover of a gay magazine without anyone making snide comments about his sexual preferences, while another player faces gay accusations because of the newspaper he reads and a liking for art.

The Professional Footballers' Association is on alert to offer support if anyone who wants to come out in the game chooses to do so in the wake of the campaign.

"This is an extension of our work tackling the issues of racism, women and girl footballers and, in recent years, promoting disablity in football," says Faulkner.

The low key approach is no doubt a bid to avoid the kind of sensational headlines that usually appear when football and being gay are linked.

"We've made considerable progress but there's still a lot to be done," she says, citing lack of representation on football panels and committees nationwide.

There's a recognition it may take some time to combat long-held prejudices in the game. Gordon Taylor, secretary of the PFA, admitted in a recent interview that homophobia in football "has always been a difficult one, particularly when certain players have been accused of not being macho enough".

The FA hopes the play and surrounding discussion will encourage people to use its freephone line - dealing with all forms of abuse - to report instances of abuse. Only when this happens will the association know the extent and how they might deal with the problem.

"It's about changing attitudes and saying that any form of discrimination in football is unacceptable," says Faulkner. "The play is about respect and treating people with respect. Players coming out is not the purpose of the campaign but to raise awareness and change opinions, so when someone wants to come out it's treated in a measured way."

As well as the phone line and email facility, Football For All is promoting the anti-homophobia message at local league level and through referee training. The law against abusive and insulting language, used for racist and sexist comments, also applies to verbal homophobic attacks. Fans chanting homophobic verses won't be tolerated.

"We don't know how large the problem is. Having a freephone, I think people will be more willing to report anonymously after the event rather than on the day that it happens. From that, we will have a better picture of the scale of it," says Faulkner.

"We're also working with clubs like Stonewall FC, which is a mix of gay, straight and lesbian people. They have not had many issues. They are accepted for their football."

Stonewall can claim to have done something the England team failed to do. They won the World Cup - or rather, the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association World Cup.

Chibnall is, to use football parlance, over the moon that the FA has adopted Gaffer! to run forums and workshops in association with the production, which plays at Southwark Playhouse and then The Studio at York Theatre Royal.

He sees stronger links developing between art and sport. "Both sides can learn from each other," he says. "I hope it will bring a broad audience to the play. What I feel very strongly is that it's for a theatre audience, a football audience and an audience who know nothing about football. For me, the whole point of doing theatre is to get as many people as possible in the same space."

The germ of the play was born while he was stage manager on a theatre tour featuring ex-managers Tommy Docherty and Malcolm Allison talking about their footballing days. "They were barnstorming nights. They were really funny and had some great stories. Afterwards we'd go back to the hotel for drinking and talking. After a while I couldn't get their voices out of my head. I had to write to stop them talking to me," he explains.

Those times, and reading the biography of Brian Clough, gave him the idea for Gaffer!, although he points out that the character of George is not based on any of them - but rather on all the managers he's known or read about. "It's a complete composite. Like all the best managers, George is larger than life. He's not like any one individual," he says. "The focus of the play is this guy under huge amounts of different pressures and how he deals with them."

The role, which was written as Lancashire, was tailored to Geordie Walmsley once he'd been cast. "It's so rare you find an actor who's so into football but also a brilliant actor," adds Chibnall.

Gaffer! is at York Theatre Royal from November 3 to 27. Tickets (01904) 623568.

The Football For All report racism and discrimination freephone is on 0800 085 0508. More details from the website FootballforAll@The FA.com

Published: 01/10/2004