Rio Ferdinand Fumes as Shocking U-20 Football Team Images Point at Racial Divide
Several photographs of England's U-20 football team emerged in British media - all showing a certain sense of divide between white and black players during a training session.
England's U-20 football team management is under a steady stream of fire. This after photos emerged last weekend showing black and white players of the team dining on separate tables.
Even as England U21 boss Gareth Southgate has rejected the claims of a divide, stars like former Manchester United hero Rio Ferdinand has gone on the offensive and blasted the management for allowing divisionary practices. "I lay the blame at the feet of the management, who should know how important it is to integrate all the players with each other," he wrote in his column for The Sun. "For the benefit of the squad, and to be successful everyone has to mix."
Ferdinand may have reasons to believe that there is indeed a divide based on race in the team as several other images - training in the gym and swimming in a pool - also clearly pointed towards the same. These photos were first published on UK's DailyMail. "Exercising in the swimming pool, six white players line up alongside each other, while the black youngsters gather together at the other end of the pool," read the report. "And on a line of training bikes, it is the same story. Black and white separated by colour. So what are we to make of it?"
The same report did acknowledge that all players were also seen laughing and joking together in many other photographs - taken during a training session. "And yet as we can see, more than once - in social and sporting situations - the group seems subconsciously to divide in two," it concluded.