"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."