Many a gay person will tell you that “coming out,” telling the world and those you love that you are gay can be one of the hardest things they do in their lives. Imagine what it was like being gay in a sporting team 10, 20 or 30 years ago…
One cannot imagine how hard that must have been for many individuals. The gay athletes playing today owe a great deal to those who went before them, as many of them in small ways, and some in big ways instigated change. Change that meant that it was OK to be gay in a sporting environment, and it was Ok to admit that you were gay.
Many years ago a team mate announced that he was gay. He had told his parents and now he was telling us. He had played in our team for a number of years, many had suspected that he was gay, but had kept those thoughts to themselves. Did it change anything? No, well not really. He was still a key part of the team, he was still a fun guy to be around, and still earned his place in the team on merit.The only noticeable thing was that he was happier, or that was how it seemed.
Women’s sport was a very different world to men’s. While there was homophobia, and undoubtedly it still remains, the male domain has become far more accepting. Although are the male population so accepting of female athletes?
Why is it if a woman plays sport, and if she is good at it, she must be a lesbian? This has been a chauvinistic view that has been around for more than the last four decades. Maybe that is the problem, it has become a thought that is so ingrained it is hard to shift.
Of course the female athlete’s cause has not been helped by the likes of Baron Pierre de Coubertin the founding patriarch of the modern Olympic Games. He famously said that the inclusion of women would be “impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect.”
The media of the day did little to help, respected writer and sports journalist Paul Gallico wrote “it is a lady’s business to look beautiful and there are hardly any sports in which she seems able to do it.”
Yet there were many many women who wanted to compete, who wanted to play sport and they put up with the barbs and the abuse and focussed on their goal as covered in “Inequality On So Many Levels.” Today’s athletes have a great deal to be thankful for.
In all sport there will be what many will term as ‘bullying.’ Sport is a competitive environment. In team sports there are only so many places in a team, which means that some will do whatever it takes to make sure those vying for the same spot do not make it. It can be physical intimidation, mental intimidation or plain nastiness. It is a very lonely place when you reach the highest level. It is like being back at school, you can’t go running to mummy or daddy, you can’t go running to the powers that be, because you will be seen as weak. Not just that, you will be upsetting the team and culture. The chances are you will be the one ostracised and possibly dropped, not those intimidating you.
Look at USA Gymnastics and their treatment of Maggie Nicholls after she reported being sexually abused at a national camp. Despite being an outstanding gymnast come the 2016 Olympic Games she was not selected for the team or even as an alternate. Yes she was coming back from injury, but all in gymnastics believed she was good enough to be in that team.
For some reason, and more so in recent times, sport does not like athletes who speak out. Matildas great Lisa de Vanna has broken her silence since her retirement and the reaction has been in some ways predictable, and in other ways extremely frightening.
Of course there are the trolls who simply use this as an excuse to abuse one of Australia’s greatest ever footballers male or female. To many that would be hard to endure, but de Vanna is used to it. She knows that this comes with the territory, and if you are going to speak out you have to expect some will not like what you have to say.
Lisa de Vanna claims that she was subjected to sexual harassment, indecent assault, grooming and bullying from senior players throughout her career. Why shouldn’t we believe her?
What has been incredible to witness is Football Australia publishing a statement, and roping in all of the current national Matildas squad to make a comment about the team and the environment. It is almost as if having all these players tell us what the Matildas means to them will make us believe that de Vanna’s claims simply cannot be true as all is well and good in Matilda-land and always has been.
This has to be one of the most misjudged and misguided responses by a sporting organisation in a very long time.
While on the one hand claiming that they are taking de Vanna’s accusations seriously, the publishing of this statement would tend to indicate the opposite. The statement has the team saying that there is nothing wrong within their environment, which may be the case at this point in time, but how hard is it going to be for one of them to break ranks and speak out in the future following this?
The language used in this statement is extremely worrying. It appears to confirm that once you are no longer part of the squad you are history. Your experiences and the part you played no longer matter. Football Australia has tried to demonise de Vanna. Clearly they have thought, she had a “bad girl” image early in her career, so we will try and resurrect it to make this all go away. What they fail to accept is that other players have come forward and backed up de Vanna’s statement.
The first tactic used by the FA was deflection, when it was reported in the Guardian the governing body had stated “We have no knowledge of what steps, if any our predecessor organisation, Soccer Australia, undertook in 2001.” Lisa de Vanna made her international debut in 2004. She played for the under 20’s in 2002. While admittedly her career in professional football commenced before the W-League in 2001.
The game in Australia was reconstituted in 2003 as the Australian Soccer Association before adopting the name of Football Federation Australia in 2005, and in December 2020 became Football Australia.
Following deflection it became a case of disbelief, when in the same article they were quoted as saying ““In the event that Lisa chooses to lodge a formal complaint through the appropriate channels, we will be in a position to investigate and, if appropriate, act accordingly.”
Now it appears that they have closed ranks, battened down the hatches and asked the current crop of players are you with us or not. If you are then prove it by being a part of this statement! Who was going to stand up and be counted at this point in time with a World Cup just around the corner?
Of course this “happy family” script also handily takes the pressure of the coach Tony Gustavsson who was hailed as being the Matilda’s saviour, the man who would lift them back up to the heights they were under Alen Stajcic; yet their world ranking continues to slip as have their performances.
The sad fact is de Vanna’s accusations have a ring of truth about them, and are sadly indicative of the times in which she broke into the game. One former male international coach related a story as to how he and his assistant coach were not allowed into the dressing room until a set time before the game. He advised that he and his assistant had not been in the changing rooms when the players were changing, yet a complaint was made. The complaint came from one of the other support staff, who coincidentally was gay. So one can see how a situation such as the one claimed by de Vanna could have occurred.
It is sad to see how one of the greats of the women’s game in Australia is being treated. Lisa de Vanna has broken down a great many barriers for this generation, just as many of the players before de Vanna did for her. It would have been good for them to have the foresight to stand alongside their former team mate, and say that this is not acceptable.
Now it looks as if they have been groomed to protect brand “Matildas,” as after all Australia is co-host of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023 and we cannot have an issue such as this rear its ugly head and affect potential money-making opportunities. After all aren’t the Matildas regarded as Australia’s most beloved national sporting team? It would certainly not be good to have that public perception shattered.
