James McClean

James McClean calls out sectarian abuse

On his Instagram page, McClean wrote: “For my son, who is seven years old and watches every Wigan game – either being at stadium or on Latics TV – to be asking his mother, ‘why are they booing and singing that song at Daddy?’ And to have to tip toe around answering him is something which should not be happening.

“This post is not one for sympathy [trust me, it is not wanted] but one of anger. Considering every single year we have an FA representative come into each club to discuss the same old crap they spew to us about discrimination. Every single year, I challenge them on the abuse. Every single year, they do nothing.

“This clip is one [from] yesterday, which can be heard clearly of one particular chant, as well as other chants of ‘f**k the pope and IRA’, being sung by the majority of the 30k crowd, as well as numerous individual chants of ‘fenian bastard, fenian c**t’, ‘you dirty Irish c**t’.

“[This was] while displaying a tribute before the game honouring Niall Quinn, who is also the same nationality as myself. Couldn’t make the stupidity up.”

He concluded: “I certainly don’t expect any action to be taken by Sunderland themselves, given they did nothing when I was their player.”