John Terry set to wear anti-racism armband in Champions League

 

Simon Rice
Monday 22 October 2012 06:36 EDT
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Chelsea captain John Terry
Chelsea captain John Terry (GETTY IMAGES)

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Having escaped the hypocrisy of wearing a Kick It Out T-shirt due to his four-match ban, John Terry will be asked to wear an anti-racism armband during tomorrow night's Champions League match against Shakhtar Donetsk.

As part of a week of action by European anti-discrimination body FARE, all captains will have the slogan 'United Against Racism' on their armband during this week's round of Champions League matches.

The campaign by Uefa coincides with the Kick It Out campaign in England which has received much publicity this week after some black players, including Anton and Rio Ferdinand, refused to wear T-Shirts with the charity's name on it before the weekend's games.

That stance, first aired by Reading striker Jason Roberts, was due to the perceived inaction against racism in the game, including the drawn out nature of Terry's racism case against Anton Ferdinand, and the length of punishment given to the Chelsea captain.

Terry was banned for four games for racially abusing the QPR defender, a suspension which happened to coincide with the Kick It Out campaign, thus allowing the 31-year-old to avoid the hypocrisy of wearing a T-Shirt.

But, with his ban not applying to European matches, it now appears he will have to wear the 'United Against Racism' during tomorrow night's match - and can expect to find his picture across the back pages as a result.

Uefa said in a statement: "Every team will be accompanied onto the pitch by children wearing 'Unite Against Racism' T-shirts and the captains will be asked to wear a 'Unite Against Racism' branded armband."

There was speculation that Terry would be stripped of the captaincy for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, but Chelsea confirmed on Saturday morning he would retain the armband.

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