Town manager firmly behind the Kick It Out campaign
Graham Turner has thrown his support firmly behind the Kick It Out campaign ahead of Shrewsbury Town's designated home match to highlight the need to cut racism out of football against Yeovil tonight.
The Shrewsbury Town manager said it was a personal choice for his players to make whether they wear the campaign's t-shirt when they warm up ahead of kick off - but he stressed he hoped they would.
The issue has been heavily in the media spotlight recently with Premier League stars Rio Ferdinand and Jason Roberts among the players choosing not to wear a Kick It Out t-shirt.
"It's a situation where players will either back it or they won't and it's entirely up to them," said Graham. "It will be down to them whether they want to express their support for the campaign by wearing a Kick It Out t-shirt."
The boss added: "I think it's an issue we've got to address, the whole racist issue, but I do think the Kick It Out campaign has made great strides in what they've wanted to achieve.
"It's not just in football as they have taken it into schools, taken it to young people, and used football as the example.
"It disappoints me that we're not all wholeheartedly behind the campaign.
"I can understand people considering not wearing the shirts especially with the events in recent weeks in Serbia and at the top level of the game over the last 12 months.
"But in the end there's a lot of good people who have put a lot of hard work into this campaign and to snub them, I think, is not appropriate.
"I would hope that all of our players do wear the Kick It Out campaign shirts and back the people that have worked hard to eradicate this problem from our game which largely they have done compared to some of the other countries throughout Europe."