Premier League clubs set to take the knee for No Room for Racism gameweeks

Premier League clubs are expected to take the knee ahead of kick-off for the next two rounds of fixtures, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has said.

The anti-racist gesture is part of the league’s No Room for Racism campaign, which will be highlighted over the eighth and ninth matchdays.

Masters said that the players will display the gesture in the league’s upcoming matches, adding that the gesture is not compulsory and that it is up to the individuals.

“It’s never been something that has been forced upon them, either collectively or individually,” Masters told Sky News. “They had another discussion in the summer.

“They’re going to do it really at the No Room for Racism match rounds. We then decide whether they want to continue or stop. So I think they want to make sure whatever they do, it’s effective.”

Clubs and national sides have periodically taken the knee since 2020, when the gesture was popularised in football in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a white police officer in the United States in May of that year.

Premier League players took the knee following football’s return from three months of Covid-19 enforced lockdown in June 2020. In August 2022, the Premier League announced that players would stop kneeling before every match and instead “select significant moments” to do so.

The latest development comes amid debates on the effectiveness of the gesture. At this summer’s women’s European Championships, England took the knee in all three of their group stage games and at the quarter-final stage, but stopped for the semi-final and final after defender Jess Carter was subject to racist abuse during the tournament.

“We feel as a collective, is the message as strong as it used to be?” Carter’s England team-mate Lucy Bronze said at the time. “Is the message really hitting hard? Because it feels like it’s not if these things are still happening to our players in the biggest tournaments of their lives. More needs to be done in football and society, what that is right now as an individual, I don’t exactly know.”

Women’s Super League (WSL) clubs were “invited to take the knee as a symbol of solidarity against racism and discrimination” during Black History Month, which is October in the UK. Before Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 WSL home win over Brighton & Hove Albion on October 5, players opted against the gesture, with the players instead wearing shirts that read: “Spurs against racism”.

Former Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha became the first Premier League player to choose not to take the knee in in March 2021.

“There is no right or wrong decision, but for me personally I feel kneeling has just become a part of the pre-match routine and at the moment it doesn’t matter whether we kneel or stand, some of us still continue to receive abuse,” Zaha said.

The opening game of the Premier League season was marred by an alleged incident of racist abuse directed towards Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo during a game against Liverpool at Anfield. Merseyside Police later confirmed that a 47-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.

Masters said that the league is “trying our best” to combat racism.

“A lot of our players and participants, managers, referees are subject to abuse, a lot of it racism,” he said.

“And we’re trying our best to deal with that, working with our stakeholders and working with the social media companies to try to solve those issues.

“I think that fans know where that line is. No violence, no threatened intimidation, and no discrimination. If you do, then you’ll be dealt with.”

Gameweek eight of the Premier League commences on Saturday with Nottingham Forest hosting Chelsea.

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