Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew has said the gay community needs a homosexual top-level footballer to come out and "break a barrier".
Justin Fashanu - a £1m sigining for Nottingham Forest in 1981 - remains the only openly gay man to have played in the English top flight.
He came out in an interview with The Sun in 1990, but in the 36 years since, no one has followed his path. Fashanu took his own life in 1998.
RTÉ documentary Playing Straight, which airs on Wednesday night [9.30pm], explores the insular culture of football, and asks why it remains so difficult for players at every level of the game to come out.
Every manager in the top two divisions in England was asked to contribute their views on the issue, but only Pardew responded.
"From my time at Newcastle, West Ham, and here, I've never seen an anti-gay thing going on in the coaching area," he told the programme.
"That kind of homophobic view, I've never experienced it, never. I really haven't
"You get the odd bit of banter in the dressing room, and that's about it. That's about as much as I've ever seen.
"My view on the gay community is that they need someone in football to come out. Someone needs to break that barrier down. It would be great, it really would."
Playing Straight: Reality Bites airs on RTÉ2, 9.30pm, on Wednesday 16 November
