Following his passing, one particular group of fans would recite the chant: "He's gay, he's dead, he's hanging in a shed, Fashanu, Fashanu."

While there has been huge progress since those dark days, the presence of homophobia in football has not been extinguished.

Only this week, police launched an investigation into allegations that a Blackburn Rovers footballer made homophobic gestures towards Brighton fans during an English Championship match.

Brighton, which is situated on the south coast, has a large gay population and its fans are often targeted with homophobic chants.

"I think there's a big culture shift needed within football from the grassroots to the top of the game," Louise Englefield of FootballvHomophobia told CNN

"The top of the game is a symptom of a much wider issue about lack of awareness and ignorance around the ability of gay men to participate and excel at football

"When you've got a lack of gay players at the top level, then it's easy for that environment to be quite negative.

"I imagine there are players who are reticent to come out."

While other sports have embraced their gay stars, such as John Amaechi in basketball, Martin Navratilova in tennis and Gareth Thomas in rugby, football has yet to move with the times.

Off the field, the UK Parliament backed a bill to legalize gay marriage earlier this month as society continues to move forward.

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.