Everton star Ainsley Maitland-Niles refuses to take the knee as Premier League kick off anti-racism initiative

England and Everton star Ainsley Maitland-Niles refused to follow his Toffees team-mates in taking the knee before their clash with Chelsea today. 

The Premier League's 'No Room For Racism' month of action got under way at the Hill Dickinson Stadium during the lunchtime contest, with players invited to kneel on the turf ahead of kick off.

However, former Arsenal defender Maitland-Niles remained standing. He was the only player who opted against carrying out the anti-racism gesture.

Maitland-Niles' reasons for not kneeling are not yet known. However, a number of footballers have expressed concern that the gesture has lost its value.   

In 2021, former Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha described kneeling as 'degrading' while Ivan Toney said: 'We are being used as puppets.' 

'I feel like taking the knee is degrading, because growing up my parents just let me know that I should be proud to be Black no matter what and I feel like we should just stand tall,' Zaha said.

Players and staff have the opportunity to perform the pre-match gesture for the next two gameweeks in October, with the Premier League reiterating 'the commitment to tackling discrimination and highlight the importance of diversity in football'. 

The move started in the UK in 2020 following the death in US police custody of George Floyd, which sparked the Black Lives Matter movement. 

In August 2022, the Premier League stopped taking the knee before every match after consulting with players. Instead, a decision was made to limit the gesture to match rounds falling during the No Room For Racism initiative. 

Last year, the Lionesses chose not to kneel before their Euro 2025 semi-final against Italy following racist abuse aimed at defender Jess Carter on social media.

Captain Lucy Bronze said the anti-racism message is not 'as strong as it used to be' following the abuse of her team-mate.

'It was driven by the group - obviously certain individuals more than others,' Bronze explained. 'I think it was just the fact that we feel as a collective, is the message as strong as it used to be? Is the message really hitting hard? Because to us it feels like it's not if these things are still happening to our players in the biggest tournaments of their lives.

'It's about putting another statement out there to say, it's something that still is a problem, it's something that still needs to be put right. More needs to be done in football, more needs to be done in society. What that is right now as an individual, I don't exactly know.'