Brazilian Igor Benevenuto publicly declared himself homosexual and became the first FIFA international referee to express his sexual orientation, as announced in a podcast released this Friday.
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“Football was a ‘man’ thing and from early on I already knew I was gay. There was no more perfect place to hide my sexuality. Playing was not a lasting option, so I went for the only possible path: I became a referee” , revealed Benevenuto in the podcast ‘In the Locker Rooms’, from the Globo group.
Born in the state of Minas Gerais and raised in a religious family, Benevenuto is 41 years old and has spent 23 years as a judge on the pitch. He is part of the elite of Brazilian referees and officiates matches organized by FIFA.
He grew up hating football
Benevenuto said on the podcast that he grew up “deeply hating” soccer and spent his entire life “sacrificing” who he is “to protect himself from the physical and emotional violence of homophobia.”
“He lived isolated, a sad kid, with a hole in his heart,” he said, recalling his childhood, in which, as he confessed, he played the role of “heterosexual”, a “mandatory” condition to be a “soccer guy”.
Why did you decide to be a referee?
He trained as a referee in 1998 after taking a course at the Mining Football Federation with the financial support of his mother.
“Being a referee puts me in a position of power that I needed. Did I choose it to hide my sexuality? Yes. But it’s more than that. I positioned myself as the owner of the game, the type of authority and that automatically refers to a figure of strength, full of masculinity,” he explained.
Benevenuto stressed that there are “many” homosexual people in the world of football, but that “99.99% are inside the closet”
“There are referees, players, coaches, married, with children, separated, with a double life… There is everything (…) We exist and deserve the right to talk about this, to live normally,” he declared.
leadership offenses
Benevenuto stated that in the arbitration establishment “it is not a secret” that he is gay and admitted that he is “quite respected”. He never received offenses from players and coaches, according to what he said.
“Every time that came from leaders and fans, and whenever that happens it is reflected in the minutes. A fight, but I do not give up,” he said.
Benevenuto further said that he was “always” “advised” not to associate himself “with the gay image.”
“‘For my own good’, they say. Once they invited me to whistle the final of an LGBT competition and they convinced me not to because it wasn’t a good idea. And who went to whistle? A hetero referee. The hetero can; the gay, no,” he denounced.
Benevenuto made his story known in the podcast ‘In the Wardrobes of the Changing Rooms’, from the Globo group, which deals with homophobia and machismo in football.
In the previous episode, they released the testimony of former Brazilian midfielder Richarlyson Barbosa, who came to play for the Brazilian team and publicly declared himself bisexual for the first time.