Gary Neville has explained why he took down a union flag in a video hitting out at 'angry, middle-aged white men' following the Manchester terror attack.
Manchester faced a horrific tragedy on Thursday as two, Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were killed during an attack at a synagogue.
The attacker, who police later named as 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie, was shot dead at the scene, while two men, aged 30 and 32, and two women, aged 46 and 61 remain in custody.
A day later, former Manchester United and England footballer Neville posted a video on social media sharing his reaction to the tragedy and his recent experiences in Manchester and Salford.
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In the video, the pundit praised the Jewish community for remaining defiant in the face of the horrible incident and called out the division within the country that he claims is mainly being created by 'angry, middle-aged white men'.
Speaking on LinkedIn, Neville described a recent drive along Littleton Road to visit Salford City, the league two club that he owns alongside David Beckham, seeing 'probably 50 or 60 Union Jack flags' and thinking that 'we are all being turned on each other'.
He added: "The division that's being created is absolutely disgusting and it's mainly created by angry, middle-aged white men who know exactly what they're doing."
Neville went on to reveal that he had recently taken down a union flag that had been put up in one of the development sites, saying that his 85 England caps show that he is patriotic and that the flag did not represent this.
"I've been building in this city for 15-20 years and nobody's put a flag up so why do you need to put one up now? Quite clearly it's sending a message to everybody that there's something you don't like," he added.
"The Union Jack flag being used in a negative fashion is not right."
He later continued: "We need to check ourselves... because we are being pulled right and left.
"Brexit has had a devastating impact on this country and the messaging is getting dangerous, extremely dangerous, all these idiots that are out there spreading hate speech or abuse in any form, we must stop promoting them.
Since his retirement from football in 2011, Neville has frequently used his platform to voice opinions on political and social issues, particularly in the UK, famously hitting out at former prime minister Boris Johnson for “fuelling” racism and hatred during his time in power.
SPORTbible have reached out to Gary Neville for comment...
Topics: Gary Neville, Manchester United, Football
Ben McCrum