Why has football failed to move on?

The beautiful game. We love it. That's why we keep coming back week after week for more and more of the good stuff.

I love football in its purest form. 11 vs 11, the sound of the crowd roaring, brilliant glory for one team and shattering disappointment for the other; nothing beats it.

There are, however, other sociological factors that now hinder the game of football and one of them is equality. Why is it that football cannot grasp this quite simple concept of equality.

For so long the battle against racism in football has been fought and we were close to a resolution. But it has reared its ugly head once again as the past two years have brought with a spate of disappointing and nasty racism related football incidents.

And with the news of Robbie Rogers choosing to retire from football following his admittance that he was gay I despair once again at the football culture that has allowed this travesty to happen.

Why should Rogers retire from football at the age of the 25 just because his sexual preference is different to a majority of other players? There is absolutely no sound reason why it should happen but it has and it is extremely worrying.

But this is, of course, a 'man's game' and a gay man such as Rogers probably couldn't handle one of those nasty thigh high tackles that the FA so incredulously choose to ignore. Pathetic.

After the case of Justin Fashanu (who committed suicide following his 'coming out') there should be unwavering support from football's governing bodies for homosexual players and assurances that their sexual orientation is an after thought when it comes to the sport of football. If there already is then it is clearly not good enough because gay players are still too scared to come out.

Most of the world has thankfully moved on from racism and homophobia but football's archaic ways have undermimed the game we so love once again. A drastic change is needed and soon.

Follow @JerryvanWav