James McClean, an Ireland national soccer player who also plays for Premier League club Sunderland, claims to have received death threats when he refuses to wear a Remembrance Day Poppy over his t-shirt. Sunderland’s manager informed about this after a recent game against Fulham at Craven Cottage. He told how James was barracked by some supporters last day over his decision not to wear poppies. He told, “James will deal with it,” and said. “I think it’s probably to do with the issue of last week. It’s a free choice in this world. James has lived with a lot of things, he’s getting death threats as well now so that doesn’t help.” This didn’t happen all of a sudden, coz his refusal to wear poppies has been criticized by a large section of the society, perhaps a former British soldier tweeted earlier this week that James “deserves to be shot dead + body dragged past the cenotaph” though he later deleted that tweet. Moreover, he has long been subjected to sectarian abuses including loyalist threats over various social networks coz he was the only one to refuse to wear a T-shirt embroidered with poppy during a game against Everton last weakened.
Sunderland Association Football Club took its stances and said, “Wholeheartedly supports the Remembrance commemorations.” Derry-born player, who was once the part of Northern Ireland at under 21-level, recently switched to Republic of Ireland after receiving clearance from FIFA. James has now informed anti-terror police about him receiving such threats and police is investigation the matter. In the jubilant moments for Sunderland where they won their first away match since February, such kinds of incidents are like a blemish. Besides post match threats, last match is remembered for two-footed tackles which is now counted as a serious foul play in soccer. Over Sunderland’s players using two-footed tackles, its manager O’Neill was surprised, he said, “It is amazing when we’ve been given directives. How many times do we have to be told about it? We’ve been guilty ourselves, with Cattermole getting sent off. Sometimes, I don’t understand players. I don’t think it’s a case that if you don’t go in two-footed, people will consider you a coward. Quite the opposite. You have a better chance of winning a match if you have a full complement.”
Anyways, at the moment, James seems to be rethinking about his decision while on the other hand; anti-terror police would also be doing its duty for sure.