Ferdinands join shirt boycott

19 October 2012 09:24

Brothers Anton and Rio Ferdinand are expected to join Jason Roberts in leading a black player boycott of this weekend's anti-racism campaign.

Queens Park Rangers' Anton and Rio, the Manchester United defender, plan to refuse to wear Kick It Out T-shirts in protest at the Football Association's handling of the John Terry affair. The Ferdinands are upset over the four-game ban and fine handed out to the Chelsea captain by English football's governing body for using racist language in an exchange with Anton last year and Terry's subsequent opaque disciplinary action from his own club.

The brothers will be joined by Reading striker Roberts, who told Sky Sports News of his plan to boycott the shirts after Terry revealed his decision not to appeal the FA's punishment.

Roberts said: "It seems like the authorities don't have the stomach to take this on, and if the players don't take it on then nobody will."

Roberts believes Terry's four-game ban is "nowhere near what people expect" and says it is down to players to take a lead. Roberts has called on Chelsea to come down hard on their captain after a club statement confirmed Terry is facing internal disciplinary action.

He said: "You know we've sat and we've spoken about the Serbian FA and their view of what happened out there with the England Under-21s and how you have to take responsibility. "I think for a club like Chelsea, if you find yourself in the middle of this, you have to be seen to be doing the correct thing and the correct thing is to be taking action against someone who has done something like that in the game.

"If you used that sort of language in the workplace, what sanction would you expect to be given? I don't know. You say about fans saying it on the sidelines and what would happen to them? "Certainly a four-game ban is nowhere near what people would expect for something like this. I guess it's up to Chelsea to do what's right."

Source: team_talk