England stars slam Wembley’s booing fans
Rio Ferdinand has told England’s fans they should be ashamed of themselves for booing Ashley Cole after his mistake in the World Cup qualifier at Wembley.
Cole was jeered by sections of the 90,000 crowd when his woeful back pass presented Zhambyl Kukeyev with the chance to score Kazakhstan’s first away goal for eight games.
Although Fabio Capello’s team eventually ran out 5-1 winners, stand-in captain Ferdinand felt the incident left a sour taste.
“As regards [to] the booing of Ashley, a lot of the fans will go home - and I hope they will be ashamed of what they were doing, Ferdinand said.
“You want your fans to be behind you. Everyone is human, and people make mistakes. We are big enough to hold our hands up when we have made a mistake, but it is not made any easier when you have got your own fans booing you.
“I hope people on reflection will make sure they don’t do that again. A lot of the fans did try to clap Ashley, and I think you’ve got to rally round as players and supporters when anyone makes a mistake.”
It is not the first time the fans have turned on their team since the rebuilt Wembley opened last year, with David Bentley and Frank Lampard also booed by the supporters.
Chelsea midfielder Lampard fears the hostile reaction of the supporters could damage England’s attempt to make Wembley into an intimidating arena for opposing teams.
“It was disappointing when Ashley, who I think is the best left-back in the world, made one mistake and got booed,” he said. “I get fed up of talking about it. People have to realise that if we want to make Wembley a performance we need the support the crowd can give.”
AFP London
