Nigerian Football
21 YEARS AFTER, JOHN FASHANU OPENS UP ON HIS BROTHER JUSTIN’S DEATH BY SUICIDE
The year was 1988 and John Fashanu was in his element.
The Wimbledon centre forward was in the glitzy Dorchester Hotel, celebrating with his team-mates after their astonishing victory in the FA Cup.
The win over Liverpool that day was one of the biggest upsets in the history of the competition and the celebrations were in full swing.
But then things turned ugly. Fashanu went to the bathroom, where a group of players were laughing and joking about the fact that his brother Justin was gay.
John says: ‘At that time, anybody saying my brother was gay was reason to fight them. Now you wouldn’t think twice about it. But then it was an insult to my family name. One of my brothers was gay. Are you mad?’
Ten years later Justin, the first £1million black footballer — and first openly gay professional — killed himself, a victim of racism and homophobia. He hanged himself in a deserted garage after being wrongly accused of sexual assault.
‘It was a horrible day,’ adds John, who was a year younger than his brother. ‘While Justin wrestled with a number of personal demons in his life, it is clear that issues around his sexuality were at the heart of his problems.
‘There is no question that the prejudice he encountered in his professional life as a top-flight footballer for club and country blighted his career and led eventually to his death. It is a sad reflection of the continuing issues that surround professional football that, 20 years after Justin’s death, there is not a single openly gay footballer in the Premier League.
‘This is a situation that defies logic and underlines the fact that, 20 years after Justin’s death, it is still not considered advisable to be openly gay.’
John now regrets that he was part of the culture that condemned his brother to death. And, in a total volte-face, he now is urging other gay players to ‘come out’ and change the face of the sport.
He and his oldest daughter Amal, a 29-year-old TV presenter and bag designer, are launching a foundation on April 1 in an attempt to stamp out homophobia in football and increase the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender players (LGBT) in the sport.
Backed by the Professional Footballers Association and FIFA, the Justin Fashanu Foundation will collaborate with the professional bodies in organising fundraisers and raising sponsorship in a bid to eliminate prejudice in the sport.
While John will be the figurehead of the organisation, Amal is planning to organise workshops in schools and clubs at grassroots level to educate our future footballers about the negative effect of homophobia in sport.
‘Our mission is to confront discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people in football at all levels and empower them to participate without regard to their sexuality,’ says John. ‘We want to ensure that professional footballers can be open about their sexuality without the fear of public disapproval or professional disadvantage.
‘Thirty years ago, when I was at my peak playing football, the climate wasn’t conducive for anybody to come out. It wasn’t conducive for anyone to say they were bisexual, homosexual, LGBT.
‘But times have changed. The reaction has been overwhelming. It has been amazing. It’s almost like people are saying now: “Please come out. Have a free spirit. Have a free will. Be who you are”. There are a lot of people we hope to inspire to be free to come out and nobody will persecute them as I did with my brother many years ago.’
Fashanu, 56, readily admits that he acted like a ‘monster’ towards his brother after discovering he was homosexual in 1990. Initially, he did not believe the gossip that Justin was gay but, after his brother confirmed the rumours, he paid him £75,000 to keep quiet.
Later, when Justin came out in The Sun under the headline ‘£1million Football Star: I am Gay,’ he felt betrayed. Eight days later, he hit back, doing an interview with The Voice, saying: ‘My Gay Brother is an Outcast’.
‘Initially I didn’t believe him,’ says Fashanu, who now runs a Sports Academy in Nigeria. ‘When I confronted him and he said he was gay, I just thought he was doing it for attention.
‘Of course you’re gay,’ I thought. ‘Stop showing off. You’re trying to take my glory. You’re not going to do it. I’m the No1 footballer, I’ve taken your position, I’m now in the Premiership and playing for England. You’re now smoking out, having injuries and you just want to take my platform’.
That was what I was thinking. So I said: ‘Here, I’m going to give you £75,000 on the condition that you stop telling everybody you’re gay because no one cares’.
‘I then put him in a beautiful hotel in central London and asked my then manager to keep him there for a few weeks to calm him down. Little did I realise that he was gay too and sympathised with Justin. They colluded together and came up with the front-page story in the Sun.
‘I was livid. I thought he was a scam artist, taking money from me and taking money from the newspaper. I couldn’t understand then — although I can now — why he thought it was necessary to tell all and sundry that he was a homosexual. After all, I’m a heterosexual but I don’t go around singing that I’m a heterosexual.
‘Now I see the frustration and confusion he must have been going through. He must have just wanted to bare his soul. But homophobia was the rage then. You couldn’t even say the word homosexuality 30 years ago. My immediate thought was to protect my siblings, protect my mother and father and protect my loved ones around me.’
John, who scored 134 league goals in almost 400 games at Wimbledon and four other clubs, believes it was sibling rivalry that tore the brothers apart.
Just 19 months separated them in age, they were extremely close as children, after being sent to a Barnardo’s home when their parents Pearl Gopal, a nurse from British Guyana, and Patrick Fashanu, a Nigerian barrister, split up. They were later fostered by Alf and Betty Jackson, who lived in Shropham in Norfolk.
But when Justin was capped by England at Under-21 level, their circumstances changed. While he had money in his pocket, his brother was still trying to make his way. It would be another six years before John joined Wimbledon and their roles reversed. By then his brother’s career was on the wane.
‘I think it was sibling rivalry,’ he says. ‘And then you add the football, you add the showbiz, you add the celebrity, you add the money. Oh my goodness. That made the relationship quite toxic.
‘Money is a very powerful influencer when you don’t have any. I can remember going to my foster parents house and going through Justin’s numerous suits, looking for money in the pockets because I was broke.
‘I wouldn’t say I was jealous of him — I was happy for his success — but I felt annoyed that he wasn’t supporting me. I was very cross because he had a lot of money and wouldn’t give me any.
‘With the benefit of hindsight, I think he wanted me to learn the hard way. He would say: “You are not going to be a freeloader, John. You are not going to sponge off me. You will work for your money”. But at the time I couldn’t see it. I thought he was a meanie pants. Now, 30 years later, I say: “Thank you so much for assisting me to understand you have to work for your own money”.’
But it was very different when the tables were reversed and John became a millionaire. Then Justin would ask him for money and, as the dutiful younger brother, he paid up. ‘I was very generous,’ he says with a laugh.
‘And, of course, I loved him.’ Contrary to reports at the time, the two brothers were not estranged when Justin died. In fact, when Justin fled America after being wrongly accused of sexual assault, he turned to his brother. John last saw him on April 30, 1998, two days before he died.
‘Sometimes we had three months, sometimes it was five months we didn’t speak,’ says John. ‘But we would still pick up the phone and shout abuse at each other, as brothers do. I think I was one of the last people to actually see him. He came to my penthouse in St John’s Wood.
‘The dynamics had changed so quickly, from me not having any money and him being loaded, to me suddenly having crazy money and him having no money at all.’
It was at that time that John had a premonition about his brother.
‘I actually called my mum and said that I think Justin is going to take his life,’ he says. I saw the narrative. I saw that he was looking like a man on some sort of downward spiral.
‘I think he was lost. I think he was defeated. I thought: “This is not good. I think Justin is going to do something silly”.’
It was two days later, on May 2, when John and his second wife Melissa were christening their oldest son Amir, now 21, that his brother hanged himself in a deserted garage. The couple have two other children Akim, 19, and Alana, 14, and John has another two with his third wife Dolapo, Alik, 15, and Alisa, 11.
‘My then wife and I were arguing over whether to christen him Amir Justin Fashanu,’ he says. ‘I was refusing because he had caused me so much stress. Just as I changed my mind, there was a knock at the door. I opened the door and there were two police officers. They said: “Is that John Fashanu? We have bad news to tell you. Your brother has passed away.” I said: “What do you mean? He’s dead?”
John and his daughter Amal are launching a foundation to tackle homophobia in football
It was so traumatic. I thought it was some sort of horrible joke gone wrong. The challenge was how do we tell my mother Pearl, who was already not very well. She had cancer and we all knew telling her would kill her and we were right.
‘We drove to her house but didn’t say anything. She just looked at us and burst into tears and said: “I know he’s dead”. Then literally on Justin’s birthday the following year, she passed away.’
It is now more than 20 years since his brother’s death and John, who is building a John Fashanu housing estate in Nigeria, for sportsmen and women, has moved with the times. ‘I’m sad that I wasn’t able to communicate better with Justin and a lot more often,’ he adds.
‘Communication stops wars. But life is too short for regrets. What we couldn’t see many years ago, we can now see.
‘We cannot go back and change the narrative but we can move forward and make changes for the future. Hopefully, our foundation will be a major stepping stone to change.
‘Justin was a wonderful brother and achieved so many goals: he was a great athlete, the first black £1m footballer, had the best goal of the year — which was an amazing goal — and bigger than all of those accolades, he was my brother.
‘He propelled me into the limelight: a high percentage of my achievements in this world have been because of him. Not only was I able to film the biggest television show in the world for 13 years, Gladiators, but I won the FA Cup in 1988 with Wimbledon, the Crazy Gang.
‘All my achievements were phenomenal. And they wouldn’t have happened without Justin.’
Nigerian Football
Nigeria Premier League: A Sunday evening of big surprises
Rivers United seamless flow in the Nigeria Premier League ended abruptly as the backwaters candidate suddenly got rejuvenated and inflicted a 2-0 defeat on initial table-toppers from Port Harcourt.
Even by the waterfront arena, the Mobolaji Johnson Arena which overlooks the Lagos Lagoon, Rivers failed to flow. The result meant the first defeat this season to Rivers United.
Remo Stars moved up to the top of the log again after a 1-0 defeat of Lobi Stars and the setback that Rivers United got in Lagos.
Victory for Remo Stars at home is the icing on the cake of the Ikenne town’s celebration of its annual Ereke Day, which concluded on Saturday.
The goal that shot the Ikenne community outfit to the top was scored by Michael Okoro Ibe in the 47th minute.
In Lagos, after a goalless first half, Cole Ayomide, put the Ikorodu City side in the lead in the 48th minute, just a minute after the goal in Ikenne that compromised the initial top position of Rivers United.
Rivio Ayemwenre doubled the lead for Ikorodu City in the 53rd minute. What could have turned a miserable evening for Rivers United was averted when a third goal by Ikorodu City in the 78th minute
But the struggle against relegation is far from being over for Ikorodu City as they are still one of those in the backwaters.
With 11 points, they are 17th in a 20-team league in which four will drop at the end of the season. Their fellow strugglers include Bayelsa United, Akwa United and Lobi Stars. They all have one thing in common – all within aquatic zones of either the sea, lagoon and the Benue River that linked with River Niger before flowing southward into the sea.
Apart from the match in Lagos, struggling Heartland’s heart was large enough to inflict an away win over neighbours, Abia Warriors who were compelled to drop their ammunition following a 2-0 loss.
And so, Heartland FC under Emmanuel Amuneke, continues a dramatic recovery after a bad start in the season.
Micheal Ogu opened scoring for the visitors in the 12th minute and Chukwuma Agor in deep into injury time added a second goal. The result practically gave the Owerri side relief as they were out of the relegation zone after amassing 12 points. They are now in the 12th position.
While in Ijebu Ode, Bendel Insurance recovered from their last week’s home defeat as they inflicted the same fate on Sunshine Stars of Akure.
Kayode Oke Solomon opened the score for the visitors in the 17th minute but the home side away from home secured parity in the added time of the first half. But Nnamdi Anthony got the winning goal for Insurance in the 60th minute.
In Enugu, the defending champions secured a two-nil win through Godwin Obaje with the first in the 50th minute and another in the 60th minute via a penalty kick.
El-Kanemi Warriors pipped visiting Katsina United by a lone goal while Akwa United won 2-1 against visiting Kwara United. Chijioke Alaekwe opened score for the home side in the 17th minute but Emmanuel Ogbole restored parity in the 32nd before Ebedebiri Endurance scored the winner in the 60th minute via a penalty.
The win still leaves Akwa United, nine points, in the relegation zone. They are 19th on the log.
In Yenagoa, Bayelsa United forced visiting Enyimba to a 1-1 draw. Eneke Awazie had put the visitors in front in the 29th minute but Magbisa Wisdom scored the equaliser in the 36th minute.
In Kano, two late goals from veterans, Rabiu Ali and Super Eagles off-field captain Ahmed Musa gave host Kano Pillars a 2-1 win against Plateau United.
After an uneventful first half, the visitors opened score in the 66th minute through Gafar Saka before Rabiu Ali restored parity in the 76th minute and Musa scored the winner deep inside injury time.
While in Minna, Niger Tornadoes dismissed visiting Shooting stars of Ibadan with goals from Joseph Godstime in the 30th minute and Mendos Rickson in the 88th minute.
NPFL RESULTS
El-Kanemi 1-0 Katsina Utd
Abia Warriors 0-2 Heartland
Akwa Utd 2-1 Kwara Utd
Bayelsa Utd 1-1 Enyimba
Rangers 2-0 Nasarawa
Ikorodu City 2-0 Rivers Utd
Kano Pillars 2-1 Plateau Utd
Tornadoes 2-0 Shooting StarsSunshine 1-2 Insurance
Nigerian Football
Enyimba, six others have players’ Licenses restored
Following full compliance with the arbitration decisions of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Players Status Committee, the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) has restored licenses of newly transferred and registered players of seven of the ten defaulting clubs.
In a letter conveying the development to the clubs, the NPFL Chief Operating Officer, Davidson Owumi, commended the clubs for complying swiftly with the requirements, which will enable them play to their full strength.
The clubs are Enyimba, El-Kanemi Warriors, Plateau United, and Bayelsa United.
Others are Lobi Stars, Heartland, and Akwa United.
In the case of Akwa United, the licenses were restored on the directive of the NFF pending ongoing further investigations into their case.
With the development, two other clubs, Abia Warriors, Katsina United, and Kwara United, are still not off the hook as they are yet to comply with the ruling on their cases.
Nigerian Football
Pinnick calls for infrastructure adequacy and maintenance culture
Former President of Nigeria Football Federation and Nigeria’s FIFA Council Member, Amaju Melvin Pinnick OFR, has called for new methods and a re-dedication to the ethos of sports infrastructure maintenance in the country.
Delivering this year’s personality guest lecture of the Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan on Tuesday, the FIFA Council Member and Member of the CAF Executive Committee started with a brief overview of the country’s sports infrastructure landscape.
He remarked on the relevance of hosting major competitions for sports infrastructure abundance, traced the era of decline and neglect, and concluded by stating that plenteous and well-maintained sports infrastructure is crucial for Nigeria’s success in international competitions.
“Poor sports infrastructure has the consequence of limited talent development, reduces competitiveness, is a major disincentive to athletes, makes it impossible for any nation to host competitions, and hurts a country’s pride and sense of identity,” Pinnick said, as he delivered his paper titled, The Challenges of Sports Infrastructure and Maintenance in Nigeria: Prospect for the Podium Performance.
To ensure a positive turn-around, he advocated for public-private partnerships in infrastructural development and maintenance, innovative funding models, adopting modern maintenance technologies, capacity enhancement for maintenance experts and a cluster model that will rank States according to sports infrastructure available in their domain and also engender stiff competition among them for infrastructural sufficiency.
“There are a few success stories on the African continent, such as South Africa and Morocco, which have a national sports maintenance agency.
“We do not necessarily need to copy them; we can develop what will work for us. What is important now is that we must confront this sport infrastructural deficit head-on and the Federal Government, States, local councils, tertiary institutions, private club owners and private investors all have roles to play.
“With improved sports infrastructure round the country, there will be brighter prospects for podium performance by our athletes in international competitions, as we will be able to discover more talents in their youth, can nurture them and utilize the facilities optimally to blood them to real competitors. In addition, our country will be able to host major competitions, and our national pride and sense of identity as host of big events will be restored.”
In his opening address, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Kayode Adebowale , emphasized the university’s vision and mission, which includes fostering a love for sports and promoting national growth and development.
He noted that sport plays a vital role in shaping individuals, communities and nations, and commended Pinnick’s efforts in advancing the cause of Nigeria sport internationally.
The Dean of the Faculty of Education, Professor Olufemi Adegbesan, hailed Pinnick for his engaging delivery, which was also inspiring, insightful and thought-provoking. He described him as a visionary leader, astute administrator and a passionate advocate of sport infrastructure development in the country.
Goodwill messages were received from FIFA President Gianni Infantino, CAF President Patrice Motsepe (virtual), as well as Alhaji Shehu Dikko (Chairman, National Sports Commission), Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau (President, NFF), Barr. Seyi Akinwunmi (Former 1st Vice President, NFF) and Ms Aisha Falode (Member, NFF Executive Committee) were all physically present.
The carnival-like opening to the lecture featured dance performances by Itsekiri and Brazilian groups, and a special performance by the Nigeria Football Supporters Club led by its President-General Worldwide, Dr Rafiu Oladipo.
Pinnick was presented with a distinguished service award by the Faculty of Education. The award was presented by Professor Aderonke Baiyeroju, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics).
The guest lecture had in attendance the full team of the university’s management. Also present were Oyo State Sports Commissioner, Hon. Wosilat Adegoke; Oba James Odeniran, Chairman of Oyo State Football Association; former NFF General Secretary, Dr. Bolaji Ojo-Oba and; NFF’s Director of Communications, Dr Ademola Olajire.
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