Justin Fashanu Cup
About Justin Fashanu
Justin Fashanu was an English footballer, who played for a variety of clubs between 1978 and 1997. His 1981 transfer to Nottingham Forest made him Britain’s first £1m footballer. In 1980, he won the BBC Goal of the Season award, for a very spectacular goal against Liverpool. In 1990 Fashanu encountered hostility after becoming the first prominent footballer to identify himself publicly as gay in an interview with the tabloid press. Many former colleagues spoke out in anger against him, stating that gays had no place in a team sport, and his brother John publicly disowned him. Although he claimed that he was generally well accepted by his fellow players, he freely admitted that they would often joke maliciously about his sexual orientation, and he also became the target of constant crowd abuse because of it.
Fashanu agreed an exclusive with The Sun tabloid to come out as gay. They ran the headline as “£1m Football Star: I AM GAY” on 22 October 1990. A week later, his brother John Fashanu agreed an exclusive with The Voice under the headline “John Fashanu: My Gay Brother is an outcast”. Fashanu was listed at number 99 in the Top 500 Lesbian and Gay Heroes in The Pink Paper (UK), 26 September 1997. A decade after his death, Fashanu was still the only professional footballer in the world to disclose he was gay according to the BBC.
Further information can be found here.
Current Winners
2019
Sydney Rangers Football Club
(Host: Melbourne)
Past Winners
2018
Sydney Rangers Football Club
(Host: Sydney)
2017
Melbourne Rovers Soccer Club
(Host: Melbourne)
2016
Melbourne Rovers Soccer Club
(Host: Sydney)
2015
Sydney Rangers Football Club
(Host: Melbourne)
2014
Sydney Rangers Football Club
(Host: Sydney)
2013
Sydney Rangers Football Club
(Host: Melbourne)
2012
Melbourne Rovers Soccer Club
(Host: Sydney)
2011
Sydney Rangers Football Club
(Host: Melbourne)
2010
Melbourne Rovers Soccer Club
(Host: Sydney)
2009
Sydney Rangers Football Club
(Host: Melbourne)