Premier League Players want to quit kneeling before every match saying it has lost its relevance ahead of the 2022/2023 season.
The topic came up at a gathering of the 20 club captains last Thursday amid growing worries that the significance of the gesture had been diminished.
Before the new season, which begins on Friday when Arsenal travels to Selhurst Park to face Crystal Palace, the captains discussed strategies for moving forward.
Sources claimed there is real support for simply kneeling before “chosen” games to help restore the significance, even though some clubs have yet to discuss the practice with their teams (Newcastle United will do so on Tuesday, for instance).
It is feared that the taking of the knee at kick-offs has lost its significance, even though the desire for equality and the desire to make meaningful comments are as strong as ever among professional footballers.
Although a toned-down version of the gesture is presently the most likely result of the negotiations, it is still unclear how Premier League clubs will choose which weeks they perform the anti-racism symbol.
It may be limited to televised games, guaranteeing that millions of people across the world watch the gesture every week, or determined between club representatives game by game in the days before a match.
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Players will also probably kneel during any No Room For Racism campaigns to show their support for the Premier League’s pro-equality action plan.
Before Friday’s match between Arsenal and Leicester, when all clubs will have had an opportunity to assess their teams and report back to the rest of the group, finalized plans are expected to be released. The Premier League has stated that they will support the players’ choice.
At least one top-flight team has decided against kneeling, with Bournemouth’s recently promoted players believing the gesture has “lived its course.”
Midway through their Championship season, The Cherries said in February 2021 that they will stop engaging in the act. Bournemouth plans to maintain its current position and continues to believe that the emblem is not having the intended effect.
Several Premier League players, including Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace and Marcos Alonso of Chelsea, have voiced their fear that the spirit of the kneeling gesture has been lost.
Not everyone holds this opinion; in fact, there are still many Premier League players who support the gesture strongly, and it is possible to let each person make their own decision.
The first players to kneel in the Premier League were from Aston Villa and Sheffield United in June 2020. It was a very dramatic gesture at the time, and it received a lot of attention for its significance. It came after George Floyd’s murder one month earlier in the US.
Before the 2021–22 season, Premier League teams declared that they will continue to kneel as a “sign of our togetherness against all forms of bigotry.” But once it became clear that the gesture had lost its significance, participants began to reevaluate their strategy.
Before the 20 club leaders issue a statement via the Premier League announcing their plans for the 2022–23 season, further discussions will take place this week.
