Spain’s first openly gay football referee has received homophobic death threats after returning to the game months after quitting in the wake of abuse.



Jesús Tomillero, 21, was refereeing a game between CD Lasalle and Atlético Zabal in Andalusía’s second division on Saturday when a Lasalle supporter told him to “get off for being gay” after he awarded a penalty to Zabal.

The game was stopped and the man was removed but he managed to get back in and shout “You fucking faggot” at Tomillero.

Following the match - his second since returning - the referee started getting death threats on social media. “You son of a bitch. You messed with the club. We’ll kill you with Aids, you faggot,” read one.

Another message, featuring a photograph of a handgun and bullets, said: “Not long left to live, faggot.”

Tomillero said he had begun receiving the messages after posting details of what happened at the match.

“I go the first one about three o’clock yesterday afternoon,” he told the Guardian on Tuesday. “It said: ‘Reporting this was a mistake, Jesús. The boss has put a price on your head.’ There was a picture of a gun and a car and it said: ‘Get ready for what’s coming, faggot.’”

Tomillero said he was shocked by the abuse. “I had a fit of nerves and didn’t know what to do. But we got into a taxi and went to the police. They’re investigating the case, not just here but all over Spain. There are police officers outside my house 24 hours a day, but I’m still afraid and I don’t know what could happen.”

He said he would not stop refereeing. “I’m going to keep on doing what I like doing, whatever it costs,” he said. “But I am really, really scared.”

Tomillero, who came out last year, hung up his boots in May after the abuse became unbearable. The final straw came when someone shouted from the stands: “That’s that poof who was on the telly … You can stick the goal up your arse, you fucking poof.”

Worse than the homophobic slurs themselves, Tomillero said at the time, was the fact that everyone in the crowd then laughed.

Spain has generally embraced sexual tolerance since the death of General Franco in 1975, and became the third European country to legalise same-sex marriage, in 2005.

A survey conducted three years ago suggested Spain was the most accepting country in Europe when it came to homosexuality, with 88% of respondents saying society should accept it.

But prejudice remains a problem. According to statistics gathered by an equality group, in the Madrid region there is a homophobic attack every two days.