Ferdinand ends anti-racism campaign boycott

LONDON (AFP) –

Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand warms up wearing the T-shirt from Kick It Out’s ‘One Game, One Community’ campaign ahead of the English Premier League football match against Arsenal. Ferdinand ended his boycott of the anti-racism campaign by wearing the T-shirt during the warm-up.

QPR defender Anton Ferdinand ended his boycott of the Kick It Out anti-racism campaign by wearing the equality group’s T-shirt during the warm-up before Saturday’s clash against Arsenal.

Ferdinand and his brother, the Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, refused to wear the T-shirts last weekend in protest at Kick It Out’s failure to push the Football Association to take stronger action over incidents of racist abuse.

The Ferdinand brothers were angered when Chelsea defender John Terry was handed only a four-match ban for racially abusing Anton during a Premier League match last year.

QPR manager Mark Hughes on Friday claimed Anton would likely snub the T-shirt again, but he was wearing the top in the pre-match warm-up at the Emirates Stadium.

The goodwill gesture by Ferdinand is expected to be followed by a handshake between Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole before United play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge tomorrow.

Cole gave evidence on behalf of Terry in the criminal case relating to the October 2011 incident, leading Rio Ferdinand to endorse a tweet which referred to Cole as a ‘choc ice’.