'Neville’s commitment to Manchester United, England and football in general has never been in doubt. He has 74 caps for his country, playing under five different regimes, and has more experience in Champions League football than any other player in the world. A Manchester United side with Neville in it looks more complete than one without him. On Friday he is 30 years old and in two summers his Manchester United contract will have run its course. Replacing him on the pitch will be difficult, replacing him off the pitch impossible.
Allegedly it was the big American sportswear company’s attempt to get Wayne Rooney to hand out black and white armbands to the England squad before kick-off on Wednesday night that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Neville. Players with boot and kit contracts with other sportswear companies were furious and Neville felt it cheapened the issue. The big American sportswear company must have thought they were on to a winner. Who is going to argue against an anti-racism campaign? Nobody would argue with the principle, but quite a few could see through the motives.
If you still feel that Neville and his supporters were being cynical about those motives, consider that Radio 5 Live was denied access to the launch of the campaign (not visual enough, perhaps?) Ironically, the sportswear company involved has had far more column inches written about it than it might have in the past few days, proving once again that there is no such thing as bad publicity. I would not always defend everything Gary Neville says but we must always defend his right to say it.'