Shaun Wright-Phillips on hate in football: 'There is a better way to show frustration'

“As a parent, you should always want to be a role model or to shine a light down the right path for your child,” said the 42-year-old Manchester City legend.

“When there are kids around, you have to choose your words carefully, and when something does slip you should apologise.”

The former England star – son of Arsenal hero Ian Wright – said although he experienced abuse and racist remarks during his football career, he is still shocked at some of the behaviour he’s witnessed at his daughter Raphaella’s grassroots games.

This includes the 10-year-old, affectionately known as ‘Raphy’, being booed off the pitch in the past.

Speaking alongside her footballer father, the youngster recalled: “I was playing for this grassroots team and the parents were booing me off the pitch when I got injured.

“If someone is getting injured, we all go and see if they are alright and help them up and do the best we can to support them, all of our players,” she added of how she and her teammates handle such situations.

“Even if the other team are being rude to us, we don’t say anything, because it would just be rude. We just let them think what they want to think, and play on the best we can.”

Wright-Phillips and Raphaella, who signed a youth contract with Arsenal last year, have both teamed up with EE on its new Hate. Not In My Shirt campaign, which calls on sports fans to be proud supporters and stand together to challenge hate in football.

A YouGov survey commissioned on behalf of the campaign found more than a third (37 per cent) of children said they’d experienced hate. In addition, 38 per cent of the 1,245 kids surveyed, aged from six to 15 years, said that they will copy adults’ behaviour if they saw it was positively reinforced – even if they think it’s wrong.

This is why proud dad Wright-Phillips believes parents have a responsibility to be role models for their children, and should take more accountability for how they act around them.

“I think it [hate] has always been in the sport in many ways,” said Wright-Phillips, who defines hate as “negativity and toxic behaviour” which, in the context of football, usually comes about when someone’s team isn’t performing well.

“Personally, I have faced racial abuse and have seen kids copying their parents while the team bus is driving past them.

"I would say where it has got worse is at the kids’ grassroots games, with some of the parents and some of their behaviour,” he adds.

“This campaign isn’t saying you can’t be upset or frustrated with the way your team is playing. It is saying that there is a better way to show it and handle it.”