SHAUN WRIGHT-PHILLIPS would have walked off when he suffered racist abuse — if he felt able to.
The England star was one of several players subjected to sickening monkey chants during a 2004 game in Madrid.
Shaun Wright-Phillips admits he wanted to walk off when he was subjected to racist abuse – but he didn’t know what the protocol wasCredit: Action Images
Wright-Phillips, 38, said: “Now there’s a rule where players are allowed to walk off the pitch.
“If that was the case back then, would I have gone off? Yes, I think I would’ve.
“It was demoralising – I couldn’t believe it existed and on such a huge stage.
But you don’t want to let it get to you on the pitch as you don’t want to let down the fans who’ve travelled to support you.
“It was hard to deal with.”
FINE SAID NOTHING
The Spanish federation was fined just £45,000 for the shocking incident.
Wright-Phillips added: “Realistically, what is £45,000? Nothing. It was very easy for them to go, ‘OK, here’s your £45,000’.
“To them, it’s like a slap on the wrist. It needs to go a lot deeper. If they know the exact section where it’s coming from, ban the section, whether the people there did it or not.
“Then the supporters who aren’t doing it will start policing it, because they don’t want to miss any matches.
“To this day, I don’t know what actually happened to that fan. Did they get fined or anything? From what I know, nothing happened.”
SWP STARTED ROBOT DANCE
On a lighter note, 38-year-old Wright-Phillips has claimed the rights over the robot celebration, which many feel was Peter Crouch’s doing.
He did it after scoring in a Manchester derby in 2004, two years before the lanky striker did it for England.
And the difference between a 5ft 5ins winger and a 6ft 7ins striker did not go unnoticed, especially when they were pictured together.
Wright-Phillips told the June edition of FourFourTwo magazine: “I did a robot celebration for scoring that goal before Peter Crouch started doing it – he got noticed more because he is taller!
“I was small but standing beside Crouchy, I was one chromosome from being a midget!
“It eventually got to the point where I said, ‘I’m going to stand next to you on purpose.’ Just so people could see it again!”
Shaun Wright-Phillips was not impressed with the fine dished out to Spain following the 2005 racist abuseCredit: Times Newspapers Ltd
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
