Sexual minorities in men's soccer in Finland and in Finnish media: representations of LGBTQ+ pride in sports media.

This lecture by Prof. Samu Kytölä (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) will outline a research project on media representations and the visibility/invisibility of sexual minorities in men's soccer in Finland, drawing on the results of studies on media coverage:

• the use of the rainbow flag and other LGBTQ+ inclusive emblems at EURO 2020 and the 2022 World Cup;
• soccer players' coming-out parties.

Public conference for students at the University of Montpellier, and more broadly for those involved in the world of sport and physical education.

Along with the more general trends of improved LGBTQ+ recognition and visibility in different domains of life (in Europe), issues of sexual minorities in men's team sports have emerged in especially gender studies and the sociology of sports (e.g. Anderson 2011, 2015; Magrath 2016, 2019, 2020; Cleland, Magrath & Kian 2018). However, the overall empirical bias in this field has been on the Anglo-American countries, particularly the UK. In Finland, often considered a social liberal Nordic welfare state with a relatively developed human rights situation, the issue of sexual minorities in (men's) team sports is barely emerging at best.

The conference will expose an outline of Samu Kytölä's larger research project on the media representations and (in)visibility of sexual minorities in men's soccer in Finland. It will present early qualitative findings from two empirical sub-studies: the coverage in media of (a) the issue of Rainbow Flags and other emblems of LGBTQ+ inclusivity in the major competitions UEFA 2020 (2021) EURO and FIFA 2022 World Cup; (b) the coming-out of male footballers in other countries.