Brothers Anton and Rio Ferdinand are expected to join Jason Roberts in leading a black player boycott of this weekend's anti-racism campaign.
Queens Park Rangers' Anton and Rio, the Manchester United defender, plan to refuse to wear Kick It Out T-shirts in protest at the Football Association's handling of the John Terry affair.
The Ferdinands are upset over the four-game ban and fine handed out to the Chelsea captain by English football's governing body for using racist language in an exchange with Anton last year and Terry's subsequent opaque disciplinary action from his own club.
The brothers will be joined by Reading striker Roberts, who told Sky Sports News of his plan to boycott the shirts after Terry revealed his decision not to appeal the FA's punishment.
Roberts said: "It seems like the authorities don't have the stomach to take this on, and if the players don't take it on then nobody will."
Roberts believes Terry's four-game ban is "nowhere near what people expect" and says it is down to players to take a lead.
Roberts has called on Chelsea to come down hard on their captain after a club statement confirmed Terry is facing internal disciplinary action.
He said: "You know we've sat and we've spoken about the Serbian FA and their view of what happened out there with the England Under-21s and how you have to take responsibility.
"I think for a club like Chelsea, if you find yourself in the middle of this, you have to be seen to be doing the correct thing and the correct thing is to be taking action against someone who has done something like that in the game.
"If you used that sort of language in the workplace, what sanction would you expect to be given? I don't know. You say about fans saying it on the sidelines and what would happen to them?
"Certainly a four-game ban is nowhere near what people would expect for something like this. I guess it's up to Chelsea to do what's right."
what do you think?
Rob Shaw
I am completely against racism, but I think the Ferdinand brothers are idiots and need to wind their necks in. Fair enough, Anton thought he was being racially abused and therefore he should of challenged it to get justice. BUT Terry was found innocent and therefore it needs to be dropped. Rio is no longer relivant and Anton just needs to let it go
Lee Bod Bowen
So how can you be completely against racism but then post those comments?EVERYBODY knows What terry said but the courts found him not guilty.So did they make the right decision ? NO of course not ,JT is to high profile for that.The recent events show the ' kick it out ' campaign is a load of Rubbish and fare play to the players who are making a stand
Peter Howard
You say your completely against racism yet you support Terry when every impartial fan in the country saw what he said. By using his considerable wealth he escaped justice in the law courts, like so many before him, but the truth came out and for Chelsea to do so little makes them just as bad as Terry.
BOB macdonald
What a load of overpaid cry babies. I think they should all be transfered to teams in Serbia.
karl greene
It was not that long ago rio ferdinand was agreeing to a comment in twitter about ashley cole being a choc ice is that not racist kettle callin pot springs to mind
Pat TWOMEY
Not only agreeing, he retweeted it into his timeline, giving it a far wider audience (3m) than say two blokes down the pub saying the same thing. For this he was dealt with by the FA with minimal fuss at a secret location and fined 40k and the FA's reasoning makes for terrific reading on this. Ashley Cole handed it superbly, compare and contrast just who are the real toxic elements.
Pat TWOMEY
Strange, how that court case has been airbrushed out of existence and effectively forgotton all about in the rush to build the scaffold. Even stranger that we see people asking for transparency from Chelsea, when The FA's reasons for banning and fining terry were all done behind close doors by FA employees and a QC who works for them on such matters? Stranger still, that we see people going on about "the workplace scenario", well if I was sanctioned by my employer and prosecuted as a result of the activity that saw me sanctioned, with a court case following proving I was not guilty, then I would be straight back onto my employer or the nearest tribunal, money permitting.
Bill Fleming
This comment has been removed for violations of our Terms and Conditions.
Frow07
Suarez gets 8 game ban for racist comments ....terry gets 4 game ban.....cole gets a small change fine for abusing the games rulemakers..... sounds like FA are scared to take on Chelsea & in turn Cheslea scared to take on their own players. Chelsea should add 4 games of their own to terrys ban and should drop cole for a similar number of games, as for the Ferdinand bros, yeah it was wrong and yeah they have a point but get on with life and be more constructive in resolving these isuues.
Lee Bod Bowen
9:19am on 19/10/2012
Chelsea and the fa's handling of this has been a disgrace . Dont blame the players for doing this and making a stand,if the fa had taken a stance on this we wouldn't be in a mess .Forget about Serbia,let's get our own house in order first