Josh Cavallo's statement after suffering 'hateful and hurtful' homophobic abuse

Josh Cavallo, the world's only openly gay male top-flight footballer, has penned an emotional statement after being subjected to 'hateful and hurtful' homophobic abuse.

The left-back came on as a substitute after 54 minutes of Adelaide United's trip to Melbourne Victory in the A-League, a game known in Australia as the 'Original Rivalry'.

But he has now revealed that during the clash at AAMI Park, which finished as a 1-1 draw, he was subjected to homophobic abuse by Victory supporters.

Cavallo came out as gay at the end of October with a heartfelt video message on social media, becoming the only active player in top-flight football to do so.

He has impressed for Adelaide this season, with the Reds sitting in midtable in the A League heading into their visit to Victory.

But the game has now been marred by the news that Cavallo was homophobically abused, with the 22-year-old penning an emotional statement in response.

"I'm not going to pretend that I didn't see or hear the homophobic abuse at the game last night. There are no words to tell you how disappointed I was," he wrote.

"As a society it shows we still face these problems in 2022. This shouldn't be acceptable and we need to do more to hold these people accountable.

"Hate never will win. I will never apologise for living my truth and most recently who I am outside of football.

"To all the young people who have received homophobic abuse, hold your heads up high and keep chasing your dreams.

"Know that there is no place in the game for this. Football is a game for everyone no matter of who you are, what colour your skin is or where you come from."

Cavallo also revealed that since he came out that he has been sent abusive messages on social media, something he called on Instagtram and Twitter to take action against.

"To @instagram and @Twitter I don't want any child or adult to have to receive the hateful and hurtful messages that I've received," Cavallo added.

"I knew truely being who I am that I was going to come across this. It's a sad reality that your platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages.

"Thank you to all the positive messages, love and support, seeing that far outweighs the negativity. To the individuals that reached out after making a stand at the game.

"I commend you. Thank you to those fans, you had me emotional. Love will always win."

Victory condemned the abuse aimed at Cavallo in a statement in which they insisted that "spectators found to have breached these standards will be banned from future matches".

The global union for footballers, Fifpro, also showed their support for Cavallo, tweeting: "Players around the world stand united with @JoshuaCavallo and the LGBTQIA+ community.

Adelaide United also condemned the abuse, with the club's chief executive Nathan Kosmina hailing Cavallo for the bravery he has shown since coming out.

"We are appalled by the verbal abuse Josh received by fans at AAMI Park last night," Kosmina said.

"Adelaide United is proud to be an inclusive and diverse football club, and to see one of our players subjected to homophobic abuse is disappointing and upsetting.

"Josh continues to show immense courage and we join him in calling out abuse, which has no place in society, and it will not be tolerated by our Club.

"We will continue to work with the Australian Professional Leagues and Melbourne Victory to identify perpetrators and prosecute them accordingly."