Ferdinand continues to support Black Lives Matter movement by wearing badge

Rio Ferdinand continued to wear a Black Lives Matter badge on Wednesday night despite growing concerns over the social movement’s links to left-wing extremism.

The former Manchester United defender, the country’s highest-profile black football pundit, wore the pin-on during BT Sport’s coverage of Arsenal’s clash against Norwich amid growing debate over the movement’s political intentions.

Host Jake Humphrey and co-pundit Martin Keown also wore the badges, and the channel carried the Black Lives Matter slogan during advertisement breaks.

In recent days, the BLM movement has been used as a vehicle to push various controversial left-wing agendas, calling for the overthrow of capitalism, reductions in police funding and an end to free trade with Israel.

Several pundits, including Patrice Evra, have re-evaluated their choice.

But the view of Ferdinand and other pundits is that they will continue to wear the badge because they want to support BLM’s original intentions of driving racial equality.

Sky have given their on-screen talent the option of whether to wear the Black Lives Matters badge.

On Tuesday night, ex-Manchester United defender Evra chose not to wear one during Sky’s coverage of his former club’s visit to Brighton, with Sportsmail columnist Jamie Redknapp following his lead.

On Monday, Sky pundit Matt Le Tissier said he was ‘reviewing’ wearing the badge and that he could not support the ‘far-left ideology’ of the group behind the cause in the UK.

He told MailOnline: ‘I just don’t agree with some of the points of that movement — specifically the defunding of the police and the anti-capitalist points are things I do not agree with.

‘I will still wear the badge because I do of course believe black lives matter. It’s a simple thing — I agree with the cause but there are parts of the organisation that I just cannot support.’