Out Ex-Footballer and Author Ouissem Belgacem has No Love for World Cup

If the world was different place, Ouissem Belgacem would be playing in the World Cup. Belgacem is a former French high-performance athlete and writer who describes himself as French, Arab, Muslim and homosexual – and he has faced discrimination for three of those descriptions over his career. He left soccer because he felt he could not be authentic in the homophobic climate that defines the sport.

The 33-year-old Belgacem became interested in the sport at an early age. At 13 he was spotted by a scout for the professional team Toulouse FC (TFC), for which he trained and played with until he was 18. He competed for Tunisia in the African Cup of Nations, and was hailed as a talented up-and-comer in the sport. Instead, he left it at 19, exhausted from having to hide his homosexuality in the sports world. But from his experiences he wrote a thinly-veiled confessional novel, "Adieu, ma shame," ("Farewell my shame"), published by Fayard in 2021, which explores homophobia in the sport. This past year he has toured, promoting the book and his working on a documentary series, writes the French language site Haute-Garonne.

Belgacem also tried living and working in the United States, but there found himself a victim of religious prejudice. Depressed by the experience, he moved to London, where he felt comfortable with being gay (though still not out with his family and friends). He pursued his career, working at an environmental consulting company before in 2014, he starting his own consulting company, One Track, for athletes that reconnected him with football.

Belgacem, the French website Têtu writes, has become a leading advocate for the inclusiveness of LGBTQI+ people in football. "Since the publication of his book, this former player has been spreading to clubs to preach tolerance and raise awareness among pro and amateur players. He denounces the lack of courage of football players, whose role in his eyes does not stop at running behind a ball."

Discussing the World Cup in an interview with Têtu, Belgacem said that when Qatar was picked to host, "the authorities told us that it would help advance human rights in this country, and that we would be able to defend our values. Today, the authorities give in to censorship and Qatari pressure because they are totally uninterested in basic rights. Result, the potential opening of Qatar has been reduced to nothing."

He also addressed the arm band issue. FIFA banned the wearing of LGBTQ+ arm bands that some players planned to wear at the event and the reluctance of the captain of the French team to wear one. "Obviously, these armbands would not have changed anything concerning the law criminalizing homosexuality. But they were the beginnings of a conversation on the subject. And when I see the coldness of the response from Hugo Lloris, the captain of the France team, on this subject, the message he sends is that he is not on the side of people who are discriminated against. He has a severe lack of empathy, probably because he doesn't know anyone who is openly gay. From now on, a player in the closet who would like to come out will obviously think that his coming out will not be welcomed. What's crazy is that."

As for the World Cup not being political, as French president Emmanuel Macron has stated, "Of course, sport is political. When you're captain of the France team, you're not just a football player, you're not just running behind a ball, but you're an opinion leader with all the responsibilities that entails. It would have cost him absolutely nothing to stand on our side. This is an incredible missed opportunity. We are a long way from the 98 World Cup where we succeeded in uniting the French behind humanist values."