Homophobia in football

In the deep dark corners of the internet, the ugly face of ignorance shines out over what can be both the best and worst place on Earth. Never have I seen such hate and anger expressed in a pure form. But just when I thought that pixels on a screen weren’t the end of the matter, I felt the brunt of it on a football pitch.

Yesterday marked the start of LGBT History Month. Blinded fools took to their keyboards to shout back at the world.

I thought we’d moved past this as humans. I thought people could be accepted regardless of belief, or race, or origin. I was wrong.

A movement in football to try and combat the ongoing abuse is through wearing rainbow laces.

As someone who’s been deeply affected by discrimination myself, as someone whose closest friends are gay, I wanted to show my support to the LGBT community. Football (and life for that matter) is about acceptance.

What occurred last night was anything but.

I play six-a-side with my course-mates at university. Team100, the world’s most unfit footballing outfit (except maybe Derby County 2007-08).

Do we have the best individuals? No. Do we play the best as a team? Not even that. But we have desire, heart and every other intangible under the sun you need to play small-sided football in abundance, and that’s all that matters to us.

We had a game against one of the best teams to ever come up against us; they thrashed us 6-2 last season and are better in every area possible. We took to the slick surface of the Langstone astro-turf looking to cause an upset, and I hoped to do my LGBT brothers and sisters proud.

Part of me wishes I never set foot on that artificial pitch.

The rain was lashing down and the off-shore winds made it a cagey encounter, one where you’d avoid contact with others just to make sure you were both able to walk back to the taxi pick-up point afterwards. Indeed, it was a match with few collisions. Well, for my friends at least.

I received a series of needlessly strong challenges. At first I thought this was just another game; I usually put myself into 50/50s in spite of my small stature. But the challenges grew in aggression, and I quickly figured out what was going on – it was the laces.

The rainbow pattern is so vibrant that you could probably see me from a mile away. That’s the point, but it made me public enemy number one with the opposition.

I tried to pick myself up and dust myself off after the first few fouls, but one stood out and made me notice what was transpiring. Midway through the first half, I was attempting to shield the ball out for a throw in. One of their players came up behind me and starting biting away at the back of my shins and ankles with his boots despite the lack of urgency to steal the ball from me at this point. I went over and would eventually sub myself off as it was that painful, but not before I heard their player mutter “fucking fag” in my direction.

What could I do? In hindsight I should have told the referee, but I wanted to let our football do the talking first. We had them on the ropes and we were playing out of our skins. “Just tell him at the end” I thought to myself.

By that point I had been thrown to the floor more times than I care to remember. I just wanted to go home.

I could feel aches and pains in every part of my body, nothing was left untouched by their boots or the crisp turf that broke my fall time after time. As painlessly as I could, I removed my trademark Tottenham shirt and accompanying under-layer in front of my mirror.

They were everywhere. Cuts, bruises, grazes. Everywhere. I couldn’t hold it in. Those closest to me will know of my other struggles, and this sent me over the edge. I couldn’t look at myself for much longer and I rolled into bed as quickly as my pain tolerance would allow me. I didn’t head to my lectures today, I wasn’t in the right state of mind. If my lecturers are reading this, I’m sorry.

The pain is still with me as I write this, but this isn’t about just me. It’s about the footballing community, and to a wider extent, the human race.

I’m a heterosexual and that is the abuse I had to deal with, just for standing up for what I believe in. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for the LGBT community to carry on participating in the football world when incidents like this occur. I understand why we rarely see professional footballers come out.

So when you hear people say that homophobia isn’t an issue in sport, don’t listen to them. It’s still prevalent. I did the wrong thing last night. I should have said straight away what I had heard. Don’t make the same mistake. If you witness something, report it.

The fight goes on, but I know the side of morality and justice will prevail.

Vegan fast-food restaurant opens in London

A new fast-food café is looking to thrive following its recent opening in north-west London. Ahimsa, based in Pinner, was founded by four people – none of whom had experience in the food industry. They aim to become one of the very first ‘vegan fast-food’ franchises in the world. The main stakeholder, Vijay Ramanaidoo, spoke with us about how this idea came about and how the first few weeks in business have faired for the café.

Erik Lamela - The Follow Up

“Beautifully done by Modric, and it’s a lovely ball too, and Van der Vaart finds the net! Lift off for Tottenham Hotspur!”

“Now Carroll, Bale again, Bale goes for goal, oh what a goal! It’s been a weekend of stunning goals but that one may just have topped the lot!”

Some special memories have been forged wearing the number 11 at Tottenham Hotspur, particularly in recent times. Rafael Van der Vaart and Gareth Bale left White Hart Lane as cult heroes, and so if filling in the boots of the world’s most expensive player wasn’t enough, Erik Lamela had to prove he was worthy of donning that famous navy blue number.

No pressure, Erik...

Well, that took a while.

Even the most loyal Spurs fan will struggle to remember anything Lamela did of note in his first season in north London. A last minute assist away at Cardiff and a neat goal against FC Sheriff in the Europa League were the only things of note.

The odd ten-minute run-around at the end of games seemed like a teething issue at first – Lamela’s figure was slight and dainty, almost certain to crack under a strong challenge. However, when Tottenham of all clubs spend £30million on one player, you’d expect him to be the first name on the team-sheet, when in fact he was probably the last one on the bench.

It was obvious that Andre Vilas-Boas and Erik Lamela weren’t right for each other, and when the Portuguese was given his marching orders by Daniel Levy, Lamela soon suffered a season-ending injury.

The 2014/15 season was a mixed one for Lamela, but was constantly dug out and scapegoated for his performances. He wasn’t the easy-eye dribbler as touted, but he was effective. A full review of Lamela’s year can be found here: http://seanwalsh97.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-role-of-erik-lamela.html

At the start of the 2015/16 season, the majority of Spurs fans had given up on Erik Lamela. A frustrating year had passed by, and sloppy, unbalanced performances vs Manchester United, Stoke City and Leicester City to start the new campaign left his place at Tottenham hanging in the balance.

Marseille offered the chance of a one-year loan deal on deadline deal, but Mauricio Pochettino pulled the plug on it at the eleventh hour. Lamela had to start performing again; if he didn’t owe that to the White Hart Lane faithful, he owed it to his boss.

The back-end of the 2014/15 season saw an upturn in form from the Argentine winger, showing just why he was touted as a top prospect upon arrival in N17. His passing was quicker, his link-up play was far more effective and, perhaps most importantly, he was silencing a few groans in the crowd.

Lamela fell victim to the vicious nature of football fans, or to be more specific, ‘availability heuristic’. In layman’s terms, the image of Lamela losing possession became so engrained in the minds of the fans at White Hart Lane, they felt compelled to get on the back of Tottenham’s record signing, even if he was playing well. It's a quality that still lingers around for people who don't watch Spurs regularly.

In my review of his 2014/15 campaign, I looked at how Lamela could play an important part in the team shortly after his failed move to the south of France, highlighting four key areas of improvement: restoring confidence, getting the basics right, continuing with his newer, more efficient habits, and adding variety to his game.

Lamela has gone from strength to strength this season, learning from the mistakes of last year and even evolving into the archetypal Pochettino player.

Last year, Lamela looked incredibly uncomfortable on the ball. He lacked finesse, and would often kill attacks by running into players. Thankfully, he’s found his dribbling boots again.

Fans of other clubs often look at the Spurs starting eleven and label Lamela as the weak link, but they’d be wrong to assume so.

The key asset to Lamela’s campaign last season was his vision and chance creation, and he built on that this year too. Ultimately, this quality is what makes him such a key cog in the Tottenham team.

What’s more impressive is that Lamela has added a new dimension to his game, one that you wouldn’t expect from a South American winger. His pressing is exemplary, and is key to Pochettino’s philosophy – if anyone puts in half the shift he does, they’ll be crawling off the pitch.

Lamela following his incredible display away at Arsenal

Statistically, Lamela has excelled this season, proving to be Tottenham’s biggest threat from the wing.

Compared with the rest of the players who typically occupy the wide roles in Pochettino’s 4-2-3-1, and himself from last season, Lamela creates more chances and has more key passes to his name per 90 minutes. In the Spurs team, only Christian Eriksen exceeds his numbers. Combine his numbers with the immeasurable tenacity he brings to the side and you can hardly label Lamela as the weak link.

Lamela is also statistically the most creative of his top four rivals in the same position, including PFA Player of the Year Riyad Mahrez (though his 17 goals will undoubtedly make up for this).

He may not be the pacey, headline-grabbing forward that his predecessor but…

Who knows? Maybe that’s what he adds to his game this season.