Brazilian Soccer Player Kissing Controversy Highlights Homophobia in the Sport

Aug. 22, 2013— -- An affectionate gesture between a soccer star and a friend spurred a major controversy in Brazil, exposing the entrenched homophobia in both the country and the sport.

On Sunday, Márcio Passos de Albuquerque, a Brazilian-Qatari soccer player widely known as Emerson Sheik, posted a picture on Instagram in which he appears kissing another man.

Sheik, 34, a striker who plays for Corinthians and who is in part known for his womanizing habits, was out on a dinner date with his girlfriend celebrating his team’s 1-0 victory over Coritiba, when he decided to take the photograph with the restaurant’s head chef Izac Azar, a close friend. The photo went viral shortly after.

The following day, a group of five protesters gathered in front of Corinthians’ training grounds holding abusive banners (“This is a place for men”) and chanting homophobic slurs (“Go and kiss a woman,” “We don’t accept homosexuals”).

On Tuesday, as more and more Corinthians fans and members of Camisa 12, the team’s main group of supporters, voiced their opposition to the striker’s kiss through social media, Sheik was forced to issue an apology.

“We posted the photo because of our friendship, the affection and respect, to break this machismo, this prejudice,” Sheik told Brazilian television personality Fátima Bernardes.

Sheik also accused fans of reacting in a negative way and of responding with prejudice to the picture. He then went on to apologize for it.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I had no intention of offending or hurting any Corinthians supporter.”

According to Izac Azar, however, they knew the picture was probably going to cause a controversy.

“I’m married. And Sheik was with his girlfriend. We wanted to show that you don’t have to be gay to fight against homophobia,” Azar told Folha de Sao Paulo.

The friends’ gesture also prompted expressions of support across the country.

On Tuesday, Ari Aguiar and Alexandre Oliveira, the two hosts of Fala Sério, a Brazilian ESPN soccer program, emulated the kiss during a live broadcast in protest of the abuse directed at the Corinthians’ striker. The hosts argued that homophobia was an anachronistic prejudice and that Sheik’s personal life had no bearing on his soccer career.

Sheik’s apology and Aguiar and Oliveira’s words made little or no impression on members of Camisa 12. On Wednesday, nearly a hundred of them gathered in front of the team’s hotel in Lucas do Rio Verde to ask the player to apologize once again.

“Who likes a scene like that?” a Corinthians fan said in an interview with the Folha de São Paulo. “It looks bad for the image of the Corinthian followers. I won’t accept that my son grows up seeing a Corinthians player kissing another [man’s] mouth. What will he think? I'm not prejudiced or homophobic, but whoever plays for Corinthians has to be a man."

Homophobia is not an uncommon occurrence in Brazilian soccer. In 2007, a São Paulo soccer player filed a lawsuit against a rival team’s coach who called him gay on national television. In order to reach a decision, the judge who ruled the case concluded that soccer was a virile, masculine sport, one that was not fit for homosexuals.

A similar prejudice pervades the sport worldwide. Polls show that homophobic abuse is widespread. In England, fans have reported hearing antigay rants in 70 percent of games and the number of openly gay soccer players in history can be counted on one hand.

In 2010, FIFA awarded Qatar, a country where homosexuality is illegal, the 2022 World Cup.