This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Football Association has defended the England forward Raheem Sterling over a tattoo of a gun on his right leg, praising his “honest and heartfelt” explanation for the choice after he faced severe criticism in the tabloid press.



Sterling had posted a picture of himself on Instagram training with his England team-mates at St George’s Park, with a tattoo of an M16 assault rifle visible on his right calf.

The Sun put the image on its front page on Tuesday, with the headline: “Raheem shoots himself in the foot”.



Lucy Cope, who founded Mothers Against Guns after her son Damian was shot dead outside a club in central London in 2002, told the newspaper the tattoo was “totally unacceptable”.



“We demand he has the tattoo lasered off or covered up with a different tattoo,” she said. “If he refuses he should be dropped from the England team. He’s supposed to be a role model but chooses to glamorise guns.”

But Sterling explained the tattoo’s significance in his Instagram post. “When I was two my father died from being gunned down to death,” the 23-year-old said. “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.”

He said the tattoo had not yet been finished.

On Tuesday afternoon the FA backed Sterling. “We all support Raheem Sterling and acknowledge the honest and heartfelt account he gave via Instagram last night,” a spokesperson said. “He and the rest of the squad are focused solely on preparing for the forthcoming World Cup.”

Some have questioned the motives behind the criticism, which follows numerous negative stories about the player over the years.



Adam Keyworth (@adamkeyworth) [Thread] a selection of times when our national press have chosen to run stories on Raheem Sterling.



1. The one where Raheem was 'tired'. pic.twitter.com/6K3cHu6r7T

In 2015, the Daily Mirror accused him of being “greedy” in pay negotiations. He has also been criticised for taking nitrous oxide. In 2016 The Sun ran a story headlined “Obscene Raheem” accusing him of enraging fans by showing off his “blinging” house on social media. Sterling later said that he had bought the house for his mother, who raised him and his two sisters alone after the death of his father.

The poet and columnist Musa Okwonga said the Sun and the Daily Mail “seem to take it almost in turns to go after Raheem Sterling, apparently for no reason other than he is black and successful”.

In a thread on Twitter, Okwonga said Sterling received a “routine hounding” from the newspapers.

Former England player Gary Lineker described his treatment as “disgusting” and said that attempts to “destroy our players” ahead of major tournaments were uniquely British and “weird, unpatriotic and sad”.

Others suggested class could be a factor, with Adam Payne, political reporter at Business Insider UK, saying that Wayne Rooney had received similar treatment.