English Premier League football players said Wednesday they will no longer take the knee before every match in the upcoming season, following criticism that the anti-racism gesture was losing its impact.
In a Premier League statement, club captains said that instead, they would bend before selected games, “and in so doing we continue to show solidarity for a common cause”.
The league said it supported the captains’ decision, and would elevate anti-racism messaging as part of its “No Room for Racism” campaign – words that already feature on players’ sleeves.
Premier League players began taking the knee at the start of every game in June 2020, when the season resumed following a Covid shutdown, a month after the killing in the United States of George Floyd.
Ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick started kneeling to protest against racial injustice in 2016 and the gesture has become a familiar sight across a range of sports since Floyd’s murder by a US police officer.
But several Premier League players queried its continuing relevance – and some right-wing politicians in Britain have criticised its identification with the Black Lives Matter protest movement.
Wilfried Zaha, a black striker for Crystal Palace, was an early dissident, labelling the gesture “degrading” and opting to stand instead.
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