The daily death threats openly gay footballer Josh Cavallo receives came as news to his Adelaide United teammate Stefan Mauk.

But Mauk says it shows the importance of working to ensure football is a welcoming and safe place for all fans.

Cavallo, who came out in 2021, this week opened up on his experience.

"There's multiple, multiple, multiple death threats that come my way daily still, and it's quite sad to see," Cavallo said on Fifpro's Footballers Unfiltered podcast.

"In the world of football, being an openly gay player is a very toxic place. It's something that not everyone would be able to handle and go through."

Asked if he was fully aware of what Cavallo had been dealing with, Mauk said: "To be honest, no.

"I guess it's not something he's coming into the club and telling us.

"He comes in, he does his job, trains and he's a pretty happy guy most of the time.

"Obviously everybody has their down moments for whatever reason. But it's hard to hear because you think everything's going well in someone's life and you don't see the messages that are getting sent on social media."

Adelaide have led the way in terms of LGBTQI initiatives, including their involvement in the Pride Cup, which will be played in an A-League Women/Men double header against Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park next Saturday.

"There's so many positives with what he (Cavallo) has done in coming out and how he felt comfortable in the Adelaide United environment, but there's still a lot of education (needed) for other people," Mauk said.

"Josh has been a trailblazer and I hope more people in his position feel comfortable because of him.

"He spoke about us as a group, how happy we were for him and how comfortable he felt in our environment, which is great.

"So we need to keep on making sure that people do feel comfortable and that we call it out when it (abuse) does come out, because if you don't call it out then people are going to feel as if they can get away with it, and that's not OK."

In January 2022, Victory were fined $5000 after some of their fans directed homophobic abuse towards Cavallo.

Victory skipper Roderick Miranda stressed the importance of the Pride Cup.

"This game is about education as well, trying to educate everybody that football ... it's a game for everybody, for everybody to feel included, for everybody to feel safe, come and watch the game, support his own team," he said.

"It's great to have these kind of games to support communities, to support people from different backgrounds or whatever.

"It's a really great idea, a really great initiative, and I think everybody is really happy to be involved in this game, to be part of the game and of course make a really good spectacle in the end."

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