The Iker Casillas 'coming out' farce was a slap across the face for everyone part of the LGBT+ community.
Huge steps have been made across the past year, with Josh Cavallo, Jake Daniels, Alex Scott and many others summoning the courage to tell their truth to the world. But with the controversial World Cup fast approaching, LGBT+ fans have seen their sport take a backwards step before a ball is even kicked in Qatar.
Former Real Madrid player Casillas has claimed his account was 'hacked', leading to a tweet that appeared to show him coming out as gay. His old team-mate in the Spanish national team, Carles Puyol followed that up with his own ill-advised reply, for which he later apologised.
But despite those 'apologies', a bitter taste was left in the mouth of all those who identify as LGBT+. Coming out is an incredibly scary and momentous step, not something that should be the butt of a joke in a modern society.
So it it little wonder that the UK's biggest LGBT+ charity, Stonewall, have slammed the incident. The charity branded the two tweets "homophobic" and lamented the "disappointing" nature of what happened.
"It is disappointing to see homophobic ‘jokes’ being made at the expense of LGBTQ+ players and fans. Whatever their intent, our words matter. At Stonewall, we’ll continue to fight for a better world where LGBTQ+ people can play the sports we love as ourselves," a Stonewall spokesperson told Mirror Football.
Stonewall's strong condemnation of the incident has been backed up by James Cole, who is chairman of LGBT+ inclusive football club Village Manchester. Cole believes that football had been heading in a positive direction following Cavallo and Daniels' bravery, work that has been hit by a blow.
"I think we've reached a point where people are aware that there are LGBT people in football. It's more disappointing than anything else. The fact that he clearly thought it would be amusing to joke about it," he told Mirror Football.
"I don't think there was any malicious intent, I think it was ignorance on his part. It seemed like he just thought it would be funny because he knows his personal history, he didn't think anyone would take him seriously, he thought it would be funny.
"But it does, especially at this kind of tipping point where you've got two Scottish referees and a player who's come out recently, obviously Josh Cavallo, various others, we're kind of at a tipping point. To some people it is still a joke. It's just disappointing. I don't think it's where we should be at right now."
Cole called on Casillas and Puyol to educate themselves in the aftermath of the farce. And he insisted that it was not the responsibility of the LGBT+ community to show why the incident had such a harmful impact.
"I don't think the original tweet showed that so much as his reaction when he realised it had gone badly wrong. I can kind of understand making that tweet from the position of ignorance," he added.
"Then if you owned that and apologised and are sincere in your apology, that probably is a step forward. But to go 'oh sorry I was hacked, sorry if I've offended anyone', that's not believable and it's not an apology. I think he would have done a lot better to just own up to it.
"I don't think it's going to set anything back in terms of LGBT sport. I think it's just highlighted that people are still unwilling to educate themselves, even in situations where half of Twitter was raging at him, telling him to educate himself and apologise. I don't buy his 'I was hacked' for that one tweet.
"I don't think he's taken the opportunity to learn from it. Casillas is only a couple of years older than me and it's not our place to educate him, it's absolutely on him to be aware of these things."
Mirror Football has contacted Iker Casillas' representatives for comment.
