The Sydney gambling figure Eddie Hayson has been labelled a homophobic grub by the Sydney Morning Herald’s chief sports writer, Andrew Webster, after Hayson sent him an abusive text message calling him a “weak homosexual”.
Webster revealed in a column on Monday that Hayson sent him the message on Saturday saying he should not be allowed in a football dressing room because “rugby league and homosexuality don’t mix”.
Webster wrote: “I’m not ashamed of my sexuality, although the shame of living in the closet until I was 26 certainly took its toll on my mental health.”
Earlier this month Hayson welcomed a New South Wales police strike force to investigate NRL match-fixing as a chance to clear his name after it was reported he was a person of interest in a match-fixing investigation.
On Thursday he held a media conference, organised by the celebrity publicist Max Markson, to clear his name, at which he revealed he had offered free sex for footballers at his former brothel Stiletto.
Hayson’s text to Webster, reproduced by the Herald, read: “Your [sic] just a weak homosexual aren’t you. No balls to write the Wayne Bennett story but happy to write about the match fixing story which is destroying innocent lives of several people and everyone knows it has not happened. That’s what a coward you are and by the way all the players don’t want you anywhere near the dressing rooms every [sic] again looking at them getting changed and that’s them saying that not me and should look at different career as rugby league and homosexuality don’t mix. Your [sic] just a weak suck. Cheers.”
Webster said he decided to make the text public because Hayson had crossed the line. “Most turn their back on nasty homophobia and pretend it didn’t happen,” he wrote. “Don’t give the grub who said it any more oxygen. I’d prefer to call it out.
“Hayson is angry I didn’t write last week about Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett’s sad split from his wife of 42 years. The Bennett story was bubbling along but, as I wrote on Friday, I stayed away from it because the issue is deeply personal. Bennett is a public figure – albeit one that has established himself as the game’s moral compass – but this is a private matter.
“The match-fixing story is not.”
Webster, who has had contact with Hayson as a source, said it was absurd to say a gay man could not go into a dressing room because he would leer at players: “For starters, reporters haven’t really been allowed inside the dressing room for years.
“Rugby league and homosexuality don’t mix? I’d love to see you tell Ian Roberts that.
“And I can’t change jobs, Eddie. I love the game too much. I love writing about the game and its people too much. I don’t really know how to do anything else.
“But I’ll tell you something: the game would be so much nicer to cover if you weren’t involved with it. That’s the players saying it – not just me.”
