‘We would all defend him!’ — Uli Hoeneß says gay Bayern Munich players can come out without fear
· Yahoo Sports
Uli Hoeneß is the kind of man who speaks his mind. So when he says something, you know it’s not for PR purposes, he really intends to follow through. In an interview with RTL, the Bayern Munich ex-President made his stance on homosexuality clear.
“I don’t see any problem with it at all,” said Hoeneß (RTL via Bild). “And I don’t understand why it’s even being discussed.”
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“If that happened at Bayern Munich,” he added, “the person wouldn’t face any problems whatsoever, but rather support. If he were attacked in the media or online, we would all defend him, as always.”
“That” in this context refers to St. Pauli U-19 coach Christian Dobrick, who came out as gay recently. In an RTL interview, Dobrick said that “in professional football, gay people are treated like aliens”.
To this day, not a single active male professional footballer has come out in the top three German leagues. The topic of homosexuality remains a taboo subject in men’s professional football. Despite this, Bayern Munich have long made strong strides toward being inclusive to the LGBTQ community.
The comments made by Hoeneß do not come in a vacuum, they are made by the representative of a club that has lit its stadium up in the colors of the rainbow, and has a prominent queer ultra group called Queerpass Bayern. A rainbow flag can always be seen flying in the Südkurve on matchdays, and club captain Manuel Neuer has regularly worn a rainbow armband in the past.
As for Uli himself, this is perfectly on brand. While he has a reputation for making ill-advised comments to the media, he has always had a compassionate streak and he wears it on his sleeve. While it’s unlikely to move the needle on homophobia in football, the support of a man like Hoeneß can go a long way to making closeted gay players feel a little bit safer about coming out.