Fabio Capello accused of homophobia
Former England football team manager Fabio Capello has been accused of saying that football is not for gay peoeple
In a radio interview Mr Capello was asked about the reputation of club Atletico Madrid. He said “I don’t agree that they are violent. Football is not for mariquitas.”
Mariquitas is a diminutive form of the word “marica”, Spanish slang for gay. His statement could be loosely translated as “Football is not for fairies or pansies”.
He also defended comments by former Italian manager Arrigo Saachi. Mr Saachi said “Italy has too many foreign players. Look at the Viareggio tournament, I would say there are too many black players.”
Capello said: “What he said is not racism,’ said Capello. ‘Wwe just need to have more Italian players in our youth academies, [players] with an Italian identity. We also have black players who are Italian but he was referring to the youth teams that have eight or nine foreign players in them.”
In December, football pundit Stan Collymore was slammed for a homophobic tweet.
The FA banned two players in January for taking part in a “game” that mocked trans women.
