Discrimination based on sexual orientation poses a big problem in sport and in football in particular. Performing professional sport and being a successful athlete while being gay are usually seen as a total contradiction. This kind of casual homophobia has traditionally permeated professional football throughout the administrative, coaching and playing levels of the game. Homophobia in football is carried by invisibility. On one hand there is not a single male player in the European professional leagues who is openly gay; on the other hand it is a common prejudice that female players are stigmatized as ‘all lesbians’. European wide 'gay' has become a synonym for everything many fans dislike.