'It's something that I never thought I would be sitting here doing,' Napier, 32, explained in a video shared by the Scottish Football Association. He was quickly followed by Scotland lower-league referee Lloyd Wilson. Per Sky Sports and Reuters (h/t ESPN), Scottish category one referee Craig Napier has come out as gay. Jake Daniels, 17, of English Championship club Blackpool made history last month by becoming the first active openly gay professional male footballer in the United Kingdom since Justin Fashanu in 1990.įashanu, the first openly gay male British footballer, featured in Scotland in the mid-1990s during his career but was the last openly gay figure in Scottish men's professional football until Thursday.
