And while football has yet to move with the times, progress is being made.

Premier League and Football League clubs in the UK have created several initiatives to combat homophobia, working alongside charities such as HvF.

"Within football, people don't understand the seriousness of homophobia," added Englefield.

"The things fans shout at players, they believe it's not hurting them and they don't care if they're gay or not.

"Homophobia is used to put players down and it's a way of deriding players. That's cultural all the way through football and happens in other sports.

"When a player gives a pass away or falls over, fans use homophobia abuse to put them down and it's that which we want to stop.

"One of our key things is changing chanting in the stadium. Stop and think before you chant."

A particular success story in England has been the creation of the GFSN Gay National League, where "gay friendly" teams compete on a regular basis.

Rogers' story has been met with admiration from fellow gay football players, but his retirement from the game means that the community is still waiting for a player to come out and continue playing.

"The great pity with Robbie is that he felt it was an 'either or choice'," Scott Lawley, who plays for Nottingham Ball Bois in the GFSN Gay National League told CNN.

"Reading his blog, it felt as if he thought he had no choice but to quit football if he wanted come out.

"He could have easily retired without coming out but he's been very brave and hopefully set us in the right direction.

"He hasn't forced us to the point where a gay man runs out in front of 30,000 people to play football

"And the fact that no professional player has come out in recent years means there are still issues to deal with.

"But we will come to that day when we do have openly gay players in the top divisions and we're moving in the right direction."