MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City defender Marc Guehi believes the gesture of soccer players taking the knee before matches might have lost its impact and wants to see more done in the sport’s fight against racism.
Guehi, who is Black, didn’t take the knee prior to kickoff in City’s home game against Ipswich in the Premier League on Saturday in the first of two rounds of games dedicated to the competition’s “No Room For Racism” campaign.
It isn’t the first time Guehi refused to perform the gesture, which was introduced in June 2020 to show support for the Black Lives Matter campaign. 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.
Speaking Monday at a news conference the day before City’s Champions League match against AEK Athens, Guehi said it was “great” that the Premier League's anti-racism campaign was continuing.
“Whether more can be done — more can always be done,” he 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. But whether more can be done, we will try, hopefully with the PFA (English soccer's players union), with the league.”
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, intends to use “the reach of our players to send an important message: we are united in the fight against racism.”
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