Sterling’s tattoo is a disgrace to our city
HOW horrified and sickened I am to discover that footballer Raheem Sterling of Manchester City and England is shamelessly publicising a tattoo of a gun on his leg.
Worse still the Football Association are backing his stance and his inclusion in the England squad for the imminent World Cup.
In previous years, England sent to the World Cup as ambassadors gentlemen such as Jimmy Armfield and Bobby Charlton, or fine, upstanding human beings like Kevin Keegan and Gary Lineker.
Now the FA is helping to glamorise “gangsta” violence.
Some of Sterling’s supporters have pointed to Arsenal Football Club’s weaponry imagery. It is not the same. Arsenal developed from a state-run institution created to defend the country from foreign invasion, from Spain and Napoleon, something unfortunate but necessary.
Sterling’s symbol is linked with black on black violence, something horrible and unnecessary.
Claims by Sterling that the gun is in honour of his father who was tragically killed by a gun are disingenuous. He knows that the tattoo will be seen by black youth as “cool”.
To add insult to injury, Sterling plays here in Manchester, where the authorities have spent considerable energy trying to eradicate the gun crime of recent decades, where the Town Hall displays a statue of antigun crime campaigner Erinma Bell made out of melted-down shotguns.
As Manchester’s most prolific tour guide and one of the city’s leading historians, I work hard with Manchester city council and Marketing/Visit Manchester to give Manchester a positive and progressive image, and to counteract the years of negativity associated with gun crime.
Sterling’s actions belittle that campaign. He should be utterly ashamed of himself and withdraw from the England squad, as he has embarrassed his country. Ed Glinert, Manchester