Quote Originally Posted by laddo View Post

A third could be they were worried/scared/petrified of how their teammates or more likely opposition supporters would react to the news. .
This would have definitely been a reason not to come out in 1992, less so in 2002 and so on. IIRC there was a story fairly recently of a group of fans being arrested or an appeal for witnesses over some homophobic chant being directed at Brighton & Hove Albion, so we know that the police would be involved if any player coming out or anybody else made a complaint and it would likely be swiftly stamped out.
This would not however necessarily apply abroad.