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He also met his first long term partner through the Terriers.
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High points for Rob have included scoring a winning penalty in a match in Chicago in 2006 and lifting the GFSN Cup in 2012. None of my friends have been able to say that, it’s quite amazing.” I’ve got to walk out onto the pitch with an England flag, representing my country. “I’ve played with the Terriers in Paris, in the USA three times. Terriers, he says, has changed his life completely. However, he has not left the game before having made memories to last a lifetime, including playing in tournaments across the world while representing his club, his country, and his people. Now 41, he will be hanging up his boots at the end of the season, having wound down his time on the pitch during the 2021-22 season. He went to his first training session in May 2002, and for 20 years has been part of the team as player, manager, chairman, and most other roles. That grew to the point where in 2002 they decided, why don’t we expand this to 11-a-side." “Other groups wanted to get involved after that. “In 1997 there was a get-together in Manchester, and they were saying to Yorkshire, ‘we’ve got five of us, there’s five or more of you, shall we have a five-a-side game.’ That was how it started - two groups of fans having a five-a-side match. Occasionally they would play matches, and then every so often there would be a national get-together. He says: “Back in the 90s, there were local networks of gay football supporters, as it was still very taboo. Rob then saw a gay football team on TV, in an episode of They Think It’s All Over where the blindfolded contestants touched the players to guess who they were, and did a Yahoo search online - “which I don’t think even exists any more” - to find the Yorkshire Terriers. I couldn’t be myself, and certainly not playing football in a pub league in West Yorkshire.” I didn’t fit in there, but I also didn’t fit into ‘the gay thing’, which I saw as very stereotypical, Julian Clary-style campness. Speaking exclusively to GOAL, he says: “I started playing pub league football in 1998 and did that for quite a few years, and I was very much in the closet. It was to this background that Rob Graham joined the Terriers as a player in May 2002 - a 21-year-old from Heckmondwike, near Leeds, unconvinced of his place within football. Yet football grounds remained a terrifying place for LBGTQ+ fans, and on the pitch things weren’t much better - Robbie Fowler repeatedly making homophobic comments towards Chelsea’s Graeme Le Saux being one of the more distasteful and memorable incidents.
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The suicide of Justin Fashanu in 1998, a player treated despicably by the media and let down by the game, was an incident that should have led to a root and branch review of attitudes, behaviour and language in professional football. Here, GOAL dives into the history of the Terriers by speaking to players and managers past and present, to find out more about a club with an important history in LGBTQ+ football, and one that today finds itself as relevant as ever…Īt the turn of the century, rampant homophobia in English football was accepted and commonplace. Yorkshire could not win the cup for their silver anniversary - falling in the semi-finals - but will aim to mark this historic occasion with a third league title in five seasons. Last month’s cup final made history Village Manchester beat Dublin Devils on penalties at the home of Shelbourne FC, the first time the final has ever been played at a men's professional league ground. Now 13 teams compete across two divisions, with several more taking part in the international GFSN Cup. The league turns 20 this year, and has made great strides since being founded in 2002 with just four teams - Yorkshire Terriers, Leicester Wildecats, Leftfooters (based in London) and Bristol Panthers. Being a mixed gender competition, it also provides an environment for trans people to play competitive football without issue. Teams from across the country play each other in a competitive league and cup competition, with the league also having the specific aim of providing a safe and inclusive place for anyone to play football, regardless of age, gender and sexuality. The GFSN League is a truly unique football competition, the only national LGBTQ+ league in the world.