A Bristol Rovers player has been given a yellow card for kissing a player on the opposing team.

Rovers midfielder Lee Mansell had squared up to Gateshead player JJ O’Donnell, after an incident in a fifth division match last Friday.

It looked like they were about to start fighting when their faces came within centimetres of each other – but instead Mansell planted a kiss on his opponent’s lips.

Mr O’Donnell did not seem overly concerned by the kiss – not pulling away until Mansell went in for another – but the referee gave the player a yellow card and warned him about his conduct.

It seemed to help the team, however – who soared to a 3-2 victory over Gateshead.

The player told the BBC: “We either clash heads and he goes down or I end up doing something silly.

“I did it to defuse the situation. It’s the first time I’ve been booked for kissing someone.”

“I got in the car to go home and saw Twitter had lit up and my missus said: ‘What the hell were you thinking?’

“But we had a laugh and a joke about it with the lads afterwards. It’s another thing to add to the list of daft things I’ve done on the football pitch.”

BT Sport – who posted the above clip on Twitter – joked about the incident, writing: “Forget the mistletoe lads? @Official_BRFC’s Lee Mansell goes in for a cheeky kiss with @GatesheadFC’s JJ O’Donnell!”

Stonewall CEO Ruth Hunt recently said she knew of closeted players in the Premier League, saying: “Yes they exist. And what they say is that they are concerned about management, they are concerned about sponsorship and they are also concerned about the kind of abuse they would get from fans – not from their own fans – but fans from other teams.”

European soccer chief “fed up” with calls to boycott World Cup 2018 in Russia

Michel Platini, the head of the European soccer organization UEFA (Union of European Football Associations), said yesterday he was “fed up” with civil and human rights advocates who think it’s a mistake to hold the World Cup in Russia in 2018.

You know who else is fed up? Russia’s victims.

You know who else is fed up?

These Russian high school kids were beaten up by a mob of thugs the other day simply because they were celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and some of them were wearing kilts, so the thugs assumed they were gay, and needed to be bashed. They’re fed up.

This Ukrainian TV star, who was brutally kidnapped and mentally tortured on camera by a Russian neo-Nazi gangthat has the tacit, and now public, approval of the Putin regime – abducted because he’s presumed gay. He’s fed up.

Ukrainian TV star abducted and tortured by Russian neo-Nazi Maxim Martsinkevich. Photos then posted on VK.com.

This trans woman, who was brutally kicked and thrown around a public park in Russia simply because she’s different – she’s fed up.

Trans woman brutally beaten by Russian vigilantes, who filmed the attack and then posted it online.

This young South African student, studying in Russia, who was brutally abducted, beaten, and then had a watermelon shoved in his face because he’s black – he’s fed up.

A young gay South African is attacked by Russian vigilantes, who filmed it and posted the video online.

This 15-year-old boy, kidnapped, interrogated on camera, and outed to the world, after having urine poured on his head, simply because his attackers assumed he was gay. He’s fed up.

15 year old gay Russian boy kidnapped, and tortured, by anti-gay vigilantes that the Russian government refused to arrest. His captors later attempted to make him drink urine to “cure” him from being gay.

This boy, named Dima, who lost an eye to anti-gay thugs who barged into a community center in St. Petersburg, beat people, and then shot him in the eye – an eye he may very likely now lose. He’s fed up.

“First they shut us up with their laws so we cannot say anything in our defense, and then they say we are similar to murderers and perverts. If it’s constantly drilled into people that we are murderers, scum and perverts, I understand why these guys shot at me.”

Dima.

And finally, you know who else is fed up?

46 million Ukrainians who are about to be invaded by Russia.

They’re fed up too.

Call For World Cup Boycott In Response To Qatar's 'Gay Test'

Last month we told you about how the new FIFA anti-discrimination task force is already on the job to hold Russia and Qatar accountable for their anti-gay laws given that both nations will be hosting the World Cup in 2018 and 2022, respectively. The task force is going to have their work cut out for them now that Qatar, along with several other Persian Gulf countries, has put in place a medical "gay test" to screen out homosexual visitors to their country.

In the wake of such absurdity, LGBT activist Peter Tatchell is calling for an out-and-out boycott of the country, insisting that the World Cup in Qatar be canceled.

"This contradicts previous assurances given to FIFA by the Qatar government that everyone will be welcome and that there will be no discrimination," [Tatchell] said.

"FIFA now has no option but to cancel the world cup in Qatar. Allowing it to go head in these circumstances would involve FIFA colluding with homophobic discrimination."

A FIFA spokesperson said that they are "not aware about the specific matter" of the proposed legislation, but "FIFA's zero tolerance policy towards any acts of racism and discrimination affecting the freedom of private persons - including their sexual and political freedom - applies to the FIFA World Cup and to all other FIFA events and activities."