West Ham United players led by captain Lucas Neill showed their support on Friday for the Kick It Out initiative One Game, One Community at Chadwell Heath.
The first-team squad gathered for a special shot ahead of preparing for Sunday's derby match with Arsenal, which has been chosen as the club's day of action, and also wore special promotional T-shirts during training itself. Among those taking part with the skipper was the club's Kick It Out ambassador Carlton Cole, who is an active supporter of the cause.
"Players who have really high profiles who all have team-mates of mixed races and origin can really make a stand," Cole said. "Our own captain, Lucas Neill has no place for it, he is against it and as captain he inspires me to want to put the message across as an ambassador.
"Supporters coming to watch our game against Arsenal will see the T-shirt I am wearing on the front of our matchday programme and will see the rest of the boys wear them in our warm-up ... hopefully it will send out a real message. If you can get these words and messages out to people on a regular basis, then it may go a long way to making racial abuse of any kind a thing of the past."
