Wire Report
MANCHESTER, England (AP) – The gesture of soccer players taking a knee before games to protest racism may have lost its impact and more substantive actions can be taken to fight prejudice and bigotry, a Black soccer player says.
Speaking during the United Kingdom’s Black History Month in October, Manchester City defender Marc Guehi said it was “great” that the Premier League’s anti-racism campaign was continuing but he wouldn’t say whether it could go further.
“Whether more can be done — more can always be done,” Guehl said. “We have to see how we can move the campaign along.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a football issue. I think it’s a wider societal issue and football is that beacon of hope to try to get the message out,” Guehl said. “But whether more can be done, we will try, hopefully with the PFA (English soccer’s players union), with the league.”
Guehl didn’t take a knee prior to kickoff in the first of two games dedicated to the league’s “No Room For Racism” campaign. Guehi refused to perform the gesture, introduced in 2020 to support the international Black Lives Matter campaign calling attention to systemic racism, biased policing and the need for justice in Black communities.
Since the start of the 2022-23 season, the Premier League decided against taking the knee ahead of every match, with players instead invited to do so on certain occasions each season.
Asked whether taking the knee had lost its meaning, Guehi said: “Maybe. I haven’t been taking the knee for a while now, to be honest. I’d always clap, just because of what that actually signifies.”
Guehi didn’t go into more detail about his reasons for not taking the knee.
Another player not performing the gesture at the weekend was Leeds striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who stood while his teammates and opposition players for Manchester United knelt.
“Dom is more or less like, ‘No, I don’t go down. I show my respect by standing up, more or less,’” Leeds manager Daniel Farke said after the match, in which Calvert-Lewin scored in a 1-1 draw.
“I think each individual is different and shows respect for this campaign in a different way.”
In 2021, Wilfried Zaha — a Black player who was at Crystal Palace at the time — said he would no longer be taking the knee, describing the gesture as “degrading.”
“I feel like taking a knee is degrading,” Zaha was quoted by The Guardian newspaper as telling the FT Business of Football conference. “Growing up, my parents just let me know that I should just be proud to be Black, no matter what, and I just think we should stand tall.
“I think the meaning behind the whole thing is becoming something that we just do now. That’s not enough.”
Premier League CEO Richard Masters said the current “No Room For Racism” initiative, which comes during the U.K.’s Black History Month in October, intends to use “the reach of our players to send an important message: we are united in the fight against racism.”
