SHAUN WRIGHT-PHILLIPS wants to keep the pre-match handshakes.
By PAUL JIGGINS
The FA are under pressure to scrap the ritual following the controversy involving SWP’s team-mate Anton Ferdinand and John Terry last month.
QPR’s Ferdinand refused to shake hands with Chelsea skipper JT before their clubs’ derby at Loftus Road — after Terry was accused of racially abusing him last season.
Rangers boss Mark Hughes called for handshakes before a game to be banned.
But Wright-Phillips, whose QPR side host West Ham in another London derby tonight, said: “I think handshakes are good for fair play.
“It is a really good thing to do, especially when you have kids as mascots right in front of you.
“It gives them a good impression of football and footballers and I’m all for stuff like that.”
Terry was cleared in court in July of racially abusing Ferdinand.
But the FA found the Chelsea captain guilty at a hearing last week and punished him with a four-game ban and a £220,000 fine. Terry is deciding whether to appeal against the ruling.
Despite previously playing alongside JT for both England and Chelsea, Wright-Phillips, 30, denies he felt like a pig in the middle during the case.
SWP said: “I honestly did not think about it. I just did whatever came naturally.
“I never felt like I was stuck in the middle. I shook JT’s hand.”
Wright-Phillips was racially abused while playing for England in Spain in 2004. And he is not shocked racism is still an issue eight years on.
He admitted: “It doesn’t surprise me but it doesn’t bother me. I’m just here to play football. I look at it that you are going to get some form of abuse when you play.
“And the people who say it, more fool them. They are still at the game watching us play so I just try to block it out.”
QPR are still looking for their first Premier League win of the season. But SWP said: “The mood in the camp is really high.
“We’ve been playing really well but have just been a bit unlucky.”
