CONCENTRATING ON HIS GAME

RIO Ferdinand launches a hard-hitting anti-weapons campaign today — warning kids: “Knives are not cool, they kill.”

The England hero will stand alongside a Government minister to formally announce the crucial “pledge wall” drive, which hopes to draw backing from two million school pupils.

“The messages — like Knives Are Not Cool, They Kill and Carrying a Knife Does Not Protect, It Puts Your Life In Danger — make total sense.

“I'm on the phone to my friends back in Peckham every week and they're always telling me about something going on.

“Every next sentence — somebody has been stabbed, somebody has been shot. It's a never ending merry-go-round as long as people carry weapons.

“These initiatives are so important. The knives, the guns are a trend. Kids see on TV that it's going on in America — and then it happens here.

“But trying to be a gangster isn't cool.(ed. Arf!) Kids who carry knives and weapons have their lives changed irreversibly.

Rio concedes he was “very lucky” his football aspirations kept him focused and out of trouble as a kid.

He went on: “I am urging kids everywhere to denounce the culture of knives and violence in general.

“Life is full of opportunity if you can respect yourselves and others.

“I am forever going on about kids using youth programmes to help get them out of trouble.