James McClean, the Republic of Ireland West Brom footballer, has been forced to release a statement claiming that he’s actually not “anti-British”.
The debacle happened when the 28-yr-old received much criticism when he refused to wear a football kit that had a poppy on it. It’s also said that he declined representing Northern Ireland at international level despite growing up in Derry and appearing for them when he was under 18.
Speaking to Football Focus, McClean said:
“Back in Derry I was just being me. Nobody cared”
“All of a sudden things I say are in the papers. I’m still the same person I am, I wouldn’t want to change. If you like it, you like it, and if you don’t, you don’t.
“It’s in the papers that I’m pro-IRA and the way it goes, if you see something in the paper you believe it whether it’s true or not. I’ve been very lucky with my managers, they’ve believed my side of the story.
“I’ve had death threats and I’ve had a lot of people see me as anti-British.
“I want to go on record here and say I’ve never been anti-British. There’s certain things that I don’t agree with, my beliefs, but I take people at face value.
“I’ve had a lot of death threats which started when I declared myself for the Republic. I played for Northern Ireland for the youth system – I never hid from the fact that I took advantage of that system to better myself but I never had aspirations to play for Northern Ireland.