John kept gay Justin quiet with £75,000

John Fashanu says he paid his late brother Justin £75,000 not to reveal he was gay.

Justin, who played for Norwich and Nottingham Forest in the 1980s, came out before he took his own life in May 1998 at the age of 37.

Towards the 20th anniversary of his brother's death approaches, John called on the English FA to protect
gay footballers and tackle racist and anti-gay abuse.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain show John said that he was looking at the situation around them when their mother had cancer and was dying, and the rest of the family couldn’t understand the situation.

“We didn’t know what to do, the best thing I thought to do was to keep it quiet.”

We are now pushing the FA for the needs to create an environment where gay footballers are comfortable to come out and say: ‘I’m gay

Capped by England at Under-21 level, Justin was the first black footballer to command a £1 million transfer fee when he moved from Norwich to Forest in 1981.

He publicly came out as gay in 1990 and played for nearly 20 clubs before retiring from football in 1997.