VIENNA (AFP) — With just over two months to go before the Euro 2008 football championships start, a Vienna-based gay and lesbian group has launched a poster competition to draw attention to the homophobic side of the sport.
"Football is the last bastion, where the cliches about 'real men' can be lived out, on the field as well in the fan sections," said Qwien, the centre for gay and lesbian history and culture, in a statement.
"Bad play is termed 'feminine', hesitant or poor players are called 'sissies' or 'faggots' and the opponents berated as 'fags'.
"This kind of outright macho behaviour is common practice and not only in Austrian stadiums," Qwien said.
The group said that statistics showed that one person out of every 20 was homosexual and that meant that out of the 500 professional footballers in Austria, 25 should be gay.
"However, there is not one gay professional player in Austria who openly admits his homosexuality," Qwien said.
With the European championships to be held in Austria and Switzerland this summer, Qwien said it wanted to draw attention to homophobia in football.
"By launching a Europe-wide poster competition, we will make an otherwise taboo topic public" during the championships, it said.
Posters had to be submitted by the end of May.
The best 50 would be selected and then a jury - including Icelandic film director Robert Douglas, Life Ball organiser Gery Keszler, the president of Hamburg's FC St. Pauli football club Corny Littmann, pop singer Jimmy Somerville and Tanja Walther of the the European Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation - would pick the best three.
The winner would be announced on June 4. The 50 best posters would be displayed "at a public venue" during the championship itself, which runs from June 7-29.
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