England’s Sterling defends M16 rifle tattoo on his leg
LONDON: Manchester City and England star Raheem Sterling has been forced to defend his new tattoo of an M16 assault rifle.
Sterling posted a picture of himself training with his England teammates at St George’s Park, with a tattoo of an assault rifle on the winger’s right calf clearly visible.
Lucy Cope, who f ounded Mothers Against Guns after her son Damian was shot dead outside a club in central London in July 2012, said the ink was “totally unacceptable”.
She told The Sun: “We demand he has the tattoo lasered off or covered up with a different tattoo.
“If he refuses he should be dropped from the England team. He’s supposed to be a role model but chooses to glamourise guns.”
But Sterling, who helped City win the Premier League title in April and is currently preparing for next month’s World Cup, alluded to the tattoo having a “deeper meaning”.
In a post on Instagram, the 23-year-old said: “When I was 2 my father died from being gunned down to death I made a promise to myself I would never touch a gun in my life time, I shoot with my right foot so it has a deeper meaning N still unfinished.”
ABRAMOVICH BECOMES ISRAELI
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has the right to Israeli citizenship, the Kremlin said yesterday, after the Chelsea football club owner reportedly travelled to Israel and became a citizen after delays to his British visa application.
“The Kremlin doesn’t think anything about this,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in response to a question on the reported move by Abramovich, a former regional governor seen as being on good terms with President Vladimir Putin. “An entrepreneur receives Israeli citizenship. So what? It’s his right,” Peskov said of Abramovich, who is Jewish.
Abramovich, who was reportedly in Russia in recent days, flew into Tel Aviv and received an Israeli identity card.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not confirm or deny the report. Abramovich’s spokesman John Mann refused to comment, saying it was a personal matter. Israel’s Law of Return gives every Jew, or child or grandchild of a Jew, the right to Israeli citizenship on demand.