By PAUL JIGGINS
MARK HUGHES believes every player must make his own decision about whether to wear the Kick It Out T-shirt.
The QPR boss saw several of his squad choose to boycott the anti-racism organisation’s jersey in the warm-up for yesterday’s 1-1 draw with Everton.
They included Anton Ferdinand, who was racially abused by John Terry a year ago, Junior Hoilett, Djibril Cisse, Nedum Onuoha, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Alejandro Faurlin.
It is understood they were protesting at Kick It Out’s lack of clout within football and at the lenient sentence handed out by the FA to Terry, who will serve a four-match ban and pay a £220,000 fine.
But while Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson plans to discipline Rio Ferdinand for not wearing the shirt on Saturday, Hughes is letting his players make up their own minds.
He said: “There was a discussion between the players at the beginning of the week. My understanding was that everybody was going to wear the T-shirts.
“It’s a personal thing, but my belief is that any campaign trying to take racism out of football and sport is a good thing and we should all try to support it.
“Everybody will have their own view on that. Some will say they are doing enough, some will say they aren’t doing enough.
“I think the strides the English leagues have made in the last 20 years have been excellent. When I started playing football it was a helluva lot worse than it is now.
“I realise we should never be complacent. The point has been made that players want more to be done. I am sure because of the strength of feeling people in these organisations will question themselves and maybe that’s good.
“Maybe that’s why the guys feel strongly enough to do that.”
Everton stars Sylvain Distin, Steven Pienaar and Victor Anichebe also refused to wear the anti-racism T-shirts yesterday.
Toffees boss David Moyes said: “It’s too big a subject for my opinion. I did speak to my players and gave them the opportunity to do what they wanted.
“I am totally supportive of my players in this issue. But I actually think the Kick It Out campaign has been a huge success.”
Players’ chief Gordon Taylor feels the protests against Kick It Out are “misguided” but acknowledges questions need to be asked about the way the anti-racism campaign is being presented with so many PFA members clearly unhappy.
Numerous players decided not to wear the T-shirts at this weekend’s Premier League matches, including Ferdinand brothers Rio and Anton and Reading’s Jason Roberts.
Taylor, whose union part-funds Kick It Out, said: “I feel it’s misguided and disrespectful of people who have spent a lifetime fighting racism.
“I can understand frustration with the events that have been in place but the fact is Kick It Out is not the disciplinary body.”
But Taylor admits the protests have raised some issues. He added: “Clearly there’s a great deal of unhappiness and we’ve got to ask some serious questions.”
