Premier League captains in talks over whether to continue taking a knee

[Geez]

Premier League captains are in talks over the future of the pre-match anti-racism gesture of taking a knee before the new season begins on Friday.

The captains have already held one meeting on the subject without reaching a resolution. Another will take place when they have consulted with their team-mates.

Players have been taking a knee before kick-off since the league restarted in June 2020 following the initial shutdown due to the Covid pandemic.

However, Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha stopped in February 2021, saying at the time that "at the moment it doesn't matter whether we kneel or stand, some of us still continue to receive abuse".

BBC Football 1 Aug 22

 

[allatsea]

Surprised the teams were still doing it all of last season. Time to stop the point has been well made.

 

[Trix]

I don't think it's now achieving anything other than giving mindless racists in certain countries the opportunity to boo it just to show they are racist.

 

[spanners]

The message has been made to anyone who needed to hear it, but now, it's well past its sell by date.

 

[slartibartfast]

Yeah, not for me Clive.
It's not gonna make any difference to the people who need to change.
Gonna take generations but we are making progress, slowly but surely.
The brain dead will always be among us unfortunately. At least now they know its unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

 

[PCozzie]

Argued against it on implementation as gesture that would be misrepresented as support for one controversial group at the expense of structural change, and I've not changed my opinion. It's done little to change the minds of those that needs changing, but has given them soft ground to dig a heel in.

I hope more will be done to support the charities and orgnisations that do the heavy lifting which takes time and garners little publicity.

 

[riggi]

Don’t care either way.

 

[Hotspur33]

I think it's more divisive than unifying.
Honestly I'm not nearly qualified enough to know how much of an issue rascism is in football. Is there genuine racism or is it just idiots being unimaginative with their insults?

 

[Trix]

I think it's more divisive than unifying.
Honestly I'm not nearly qualified enough to know how much of an issue rascism is in football. Is there genuine racism or is it just idiots being unimaginative with their insults?

Well of course there are genuine racists, there are also idiots being idiots. Fact is though when you have a crowd of mostly school kids booing the knee thing and making racist chants, I think it's fair to say a token gesture isn't really going to achieve much.

 

[mil1lion]

If anything I think it just triggers the racists even more

 

[IfiHadTheWings]

If anything I think it just triggers the racists even more

Probably all the more reason to keep it.

saying that though it feels lazy now, like authorities can just point and say look we are still doing our bit.

 

[Gassin's finest]

No point to any gesture unless it's backed up with actions. But wanting to stop it because it triggers the racists sounds like a good reason to keep doing it. Out them and then tell them to fuck off.

 

[Tucker]

Feel like it’s time to stop, probably a long time since that time came tbh. It should never really have become a routine thing, the power of the statement has diminished more and more over time because it just feels run of the mill and tokenistic now. It probably should have been a one off thing to show that football was standing against racism after all the riots and protests etc two years ago.

 

[mil1lion]

Probably all the more reason to keep it.

saying that though it feels lazy now, like authorities can just point and say look we are still doing our bit.

I guess that depends on whether anything actually happens. To me it just seems that players take the knee, people are still racist online, no action gets taken and the cycle goes on. We don't get many boos in this country for it but not sure if clubs ever detected fans who booed either and successfully ban them. It just seems a totally unsuccessful gesture. They tried to make a change but more active action needs to be taken.

 

[Tucker]

No point to any gesture unless it's backed up with actions. But wanting to stop it because it triggers the racists sounds like a good reason to keep doing it. Out them and then tell them to fuck off.

One thing it has done is out a lot of racists. It triggered them enough to shine a light on themselves. I think it’s just another pre-match ritual now that doesn’t have the same impact though.

 

[Gassin's finest]

One thing it has done is out a lot of racists. It triggered them enough to shine a light on themselves. I think it’s just another pre-match ritual now that doesn’t have the same impact though.

Yeah true. I'm ambivalent to what they decide.

 

[whitesocks]

I think they need to do far more of it.
They need to do a gesture for gay rights - that is also a serious problem within the game.
Then a gesture for equality of the sexes - girls don't get the same opportunities to play the game, plus there is all that rapey stuff the players do. They need to reflect on that too.
Then a gesture for the victims of the ukraine war given how much money the Russians have pumped into the game to sportswash their activities. The blood money helps pay the players inflated wages.
Then a gesture for human rights given where the WC is about to be played and the Saudi/middle east money that has poured into the game to sportswash their horrific regimes. Reflect on that too.

These are all important issues within the game along with racism and if it takes an hour to run through the lot of them, so be it. But I also think they should do it on their own time. They are not in a position to lecture anyone.

 

[Romulus]

I feel that we should do away with it now... the premier leagues statement has been made.

 

[Japhet]

Pointless gesture now. Preaching to the choir while the bigots take no notice.

 

[Saoirse]

I'm almost certain it would and in fact should have stopped last Summer, were it not for the bad reception in got at the early England friendlies pre-Euros and the online racism incidents after the three Black players missed their penalties in the final. Keeping it this long has dampened the message more than re-enforcing it.