Former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright has revealed that he received racist abuse from some of his own team-mates early on in his career.
Wright, who is now a brilliant pundit, played over 200 times for both the Gunners and Crystal Palace as well as representing West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Celtic and Burnley.
In a new ITV documentary called ‘Out Of Their Skin‘, Wright says it was common place for training matches to take place as “blacks against whites”.
Wright made an extremely successful career out the game, scoring over 300 goals for club and country – but he has lifted the lid on what it was like for a black player in Palace’s dressing room in his early days at Selhurst Park.
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“When I first signed for Palace I got abuse in the changing room. It was just an accepted thing to do that,” Wright recalled on the documentary.
“In training we played blacks against whites, people are flying in, flare-ups. A lot of the time the black guys won, you know. Some of the times there was friction.
“Black players had a submissive way about them, in a predominantly white environment. Somewhere along the line you’re going to be the butt of jokes.”
The two-part documentary will hit your TV screens on ITV4 at 10pm on Tuesday, November 27 and Wednesday, November 28.
