Stonewall FC player Aslie Pitter joins the Justin Campaign

Stonewall FC co-founder Aslie Pitter has joined the Justin Campaign as a patron.

Mr Pitter, who was recently awarded an MBE, is the team’s reserve manager and helped found it almost 20 years ago.

He said: “I’m delighted to join with The Justin Campaign. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. The campaign is very important as we need to highlight the fact that, in sport as in life in general, people need to be able to be themselves.

The Justin Campaign is named after Justin Fashanu, the only UK footballer to have come out as gay. He killed himself in 1998.

The group arranges events and matches to raise awareness of homophobia in sport and has its own team, the Justin Fashanu All-Stars.

Mr Pitter said: “Justin Fashanu had no support when he came out but hopefully now, through organisations like the Justin Campaign, there is support waiting for players who do want to come out.”

The Justin Campaign said it was “honoured” and “excited” to have Mr Pitter on board.