Kenny Cunningham has explained why he believes players at the World Cup should not wear rainbow armbands while representing their country.
LGBTQ+ rights activists and campaigners moved to condemn threats of sanctions from Fifa on players who chose to wear OneLove armbands at the World Cup in Qatar.
England, Wales and five other European nations yesterday confirmed their players would not wear the armband, saying the football governing body had made it clear their captains could be booked or forced to leave the pitch if they did so.
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And former Ireland international defender Kenny Cunningham explained that he did not believe in symbolism of this nature at a World Cup.
The foirmer Irish skipper was speaking on Morning Ireland and Darren Frehill asked him if he would have worn the OneLove armband if he was put in Kane's position.
He said: "This is difficult for me to answer, I'm talking as a 50 year old man and I have to row back to when I was maybe 30 or 35 years of age.
"I was a different person then, not as wordly wise.
"I'm gonna be honest with you, generally speaking I'm not a fan of any symbols at all worn by the players once they take to the field of play.
"I actually feel different about the fans in the stadium, I think they should have a right to express an opinion and display any kind of support they want but for me for the actual captains of the teams themselves, my view would be I wouldn't like to see any gestures of any sort whatsoever."
Cunningham threw his full support behind the cause of the LGBTQ+ community and noted how players and backroom staff wavered from their own positions once the threat of a yellow card came into the equation.
He continued: "I can understand the reason behind it.
"I support it of course like we all do in relation to the rainbow armband in particular.
"But I think the players and managers were very keen in how strongly they supported the actual issue itself.
"But it's interesting when push came to shove and the captains and the managers themselves had to take a little bit of pain in terms of supporting this partiuclar issue, they weren't prepared to do it."
Cunningham admitted the punishment of a yellow card seemed to be rather out of place and ultimately expressed his disappointment at the reaction of the England camp following Fifa's eleventh-hour move to punish the wearing of the armband.
"The particular pain wasn't getting banned from the tournament, it was a yellow card, which seems pretty paltry in relation to the issue that we're talking about," he said.
"I think with issues like this, sometimes if you mean what you say, you've got to take the pain to reinforce what you're saying. If you don't, for me it comes across as a little bit weak.
"So I was actually disappointed, although I don't agree with it in general in terms of the armband or any other gestures by the players on the football pitch.
"I was a little bit disappointed in terms of the reaction of the captains and the countries and general."
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