THE PROSECUTION RESTS (AGAIN):

You don't have to play it straight: Football has always been the preserve of red-blooded, heterosexual men, right? Think again. As the new season kicks off, Simon Fanshawe investigates how the beautiful game is being embraced by the gay community both on and off the pitch, bringing about a significant shift in the way many gay men think of themselves. Just don't suggest it's only because they like looking at the players' legs (Simon Fanshawe, August 11, 2004, The Guardian)

Five years ago it would have been inconceivable. Then, during the World Cup, a couple of pubs did it. But for Euro 2004 a whole rash of them up and down the country decided to exploit the commercial benefit of showing football live on television. The interesting part is that these were gay bars - and during Euro 2004 they were crammed. There are now thousands of bona fide gay footie fans, from Newcastle to Southampton, and Manchester to Millwall. The Gay Football Supporters' Network (www.gfsn.org.uk) is growing faster than some gay dating sites. Football is coming homo.

When England played Croatia in June, a bunch of fans gathered in the gay pub the Duke of Wellington in Soho in London. David, a 35-year-old in PR, remembers: "There was just this whole bar full of lads. Everyone was cheering and roaring for England. It was like being in any straight pub. But then not. Beckham bent over to pick up the ball. Suddenly it was a gay pub again. Everyone whistled and hooted. Then the game carried on and when England won 4-2, the pub went beserk. Everyone was hugging and punching the air. The DJ came on the PA and said, 'Let's hear it for the lads,' and there was a huge cheer. And then he went: 'And here's Kylie!'"

Gay life is more a game of two halves now, and less a bathroom of contrasting colours. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is beginning to look old-fashioned and out of date. For every straight boy turned into a faux-mosexual with the flick of a camp wrist on television, there are at least two gay boys turning straight and coming out as football fans. And they are insisting on their share in what has been an often constricting gay identity.

Ian, a Leeds season ticket holder since he was eight, plays in the Terriers, a gay football club based in Yorkshire. "I'm 42, and when I first came out lots of other gay people thought it was strange that I was both gay and into football. But I have never felt contradictory and neither do any of my gay football friends."