Wales players rail against racism with T-shirts ahead of Czech Republic game
- Published
Wales players show their feelings towards racism
Wales players made their feelings clear about racist abuse aimed at some of their players ahead of Tuesday's World Cup qualifier against Czech Republic.
The team wore Show Racism the Red Card T-shirts during the warm-up.
Wales players Ben Cabango and Rabbi Matondo were racially abused on Instagram after Wales' 1-0 win over Mexico on Saturday.
Wales captain Bale later said he would join a social media boycott if more is not done to combat "toxic" abuse.
Police are investigating the racist abuse aimed at Cabango and Matondo, which led to former Wales striker Robert Earnshaw urging social media companies to delete abusers' accounts, but also educate them.
Former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry has said he is removing himself from social media because of racism and bullying.
Before Wales kicked off against Czech Republic, ex-Wales forward Nathan Blake said he would not join social media because of the racism evident there.
Blake told BBC Radio Wales: "This is the main reason why I don't do social media - because I'm not the type of person who's ever been able to take that, I'm 49 and I'm not going to start now.
"The choice for me is don't do social media at all or go on there and open yourself up to this sort of abuse."
Wales' players also took the knee ahead of kick-off.
Their opponents did not with the Czech Republic players and governing body highlighting their anti-discrimination stance in a statement pointing to their support for the Uefa's Respect programme.
The statement from the team and Football Association of the Czech Republic, external said: "The national team will take a neutral apolitical stance to certain topics that have been resonating in the sports environment.
"This namely concerns the Black Lives Matter (BLM) initiative, in which some players kneel before football matches.
"To express their support for the fight against racism and other displays of discrimination, xenophobia and antisemitism, the Czech national team will point to the Uuefa Respect inscription on the left sleeve of their jerseys, referring to the Uefa campaign of the same name, before the match in Wales."
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