John Terry and Ashley Cole train wear their 'Kick It Out' T-shirts.
Monday, 15 November 2004.
The nation's leading players will have their say on racism in European football next week with the England squad offering their support to the fight against racism in football ahead of the international friendly against Spain in Madrid on Wednesday 17 November.
The squad will wear anti-racism t-shirts at an open training session at the Bernabeu Stadium on Tuesday 16 November before the much anticipated friendly.
Campaigners from football’s anti-racism campaign, Kick It Out, and The Football Association hope public support from the squad will give added impetus to the work going on at the professional and grassroots levels of the game; and will highlight the leading role taken by both organisations in setting an anti-racist agenda for other European nations to follow.
Lord Herman Ouseley, Chairman of Kick It Out, welcomed the move: "We are pleased to see The FA and the England players underlining their support and commitment to kicking racism out of the game, once again, as they did last month before a successful week of anti-racism activities in football.
"Good progress has been made to tackle racism in the UK but as we keep seeing, the problem on the continent will continue to affect us. Therefore, it’s essential we do all we can to drive home the lessons learnt here in the expectation that other nations will follow.
"We should expect nothing short of zero tolerance of racism wherever it occurs."
For further information please contact Leon Mann at Kick It Out on
020 7684 4884 or
07736 009 116.