The athletes were ready and lined up in their positions.
The crowd was chanting, but there seemed to be a nervous energy in the stadium. A whistle was blown – and then it happened.
The players at Southampton FC and Manchester City took the knee during their FA Cup quarter-final match in March this year.
Sat at home, I felt a tingle race through my spine. I’d seen players perform the action many times before, but it still had an effect.
The commentator’s words added to the moment. He said: ‘As always, players taking a knee just before kick-off here, as everybody in the game hopes to banish racism.’
‘As always’. those words stuck in my mind. They felt like a promise, a sincere commitment from Premier League teams that they were determined to help drive out racism.
The fact they were taking the knee before every game added real weight to the words.
I felt, at that moment, there was no way English football could ruin this progression. I was wrong.
Earlier this month, it was announced that Premier League footballers will no longer take the knee before every game. The gesture was introduced in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
Some of the club captains believe the gesture has lost its power, and that using it on special occasions will make it more powerful.
But I believe this is incorrect.
What made the knee symbol so powerful was the repeated use of it. If the Premier League football teams had scheduled a couple of games to drop down to the ground, but then carried on as usual for the rest of the season, it would have sent the wrong message, as their actions wouldn’t have matched the gravity of the moment.
Now it seems like they’re saying Black Lives Matter has had its moment, and so it’s time to ease off a bit.
Ultimately, anything that isn’t consistent feels like tokenism, and tokenism simply will not do when it comes to confronting something as all-pervading as racism.
Football’s problem with racism has never been a secret. Images of football hooligans come to mind, channelling animalistic aggression towards Black people. Numerous former and current players have come out with their harrowing experiences of racism in the game.
Former England winger John Barnes claimed that when he was playing football in the 1980s, ‘bananas were thrown on the field every day’. One of the most famous images in football shows Barnes kicking a banana off the pitch in a 1988 Merseyside derby.
Emile Heskey has spoken about being spat at and called the N-word while playing for the England under-16s in Ireland.
In December 2019, Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger was subjected to monkey chants from Tottenham Hotspur fans after an opposing player was sent off for kicking him in the stomach.
Despite these incidents, it never seemed like anything was being done to change the situation.
When I watched the England men’s team take the knee against Germany in the June 2021 Euros match, a wave of pride washed over me. It was that sort of ‘wow this is happening’ feeling you get when a crush who has hardly ever glanced your way starts a conversation with you, except multiplied by 10.
Football is the most popular sport in the UK, and to see such conviction against prejudice was a deeply poignant moment.
I felt seen. It meant a lot because, like most Black people, I have experienced racism.
When I was playing a football game at the age of 15, I accidentally knocked over an opposition player. After I apologised, he called me the N-word as I walked away.
At the time, I responded ‘oh nice one’ sarcastically and kept on playing. I was numb.
One of my teammates was standing right next to the individual when they said it, and they didn’t react. They didn’t even flinch. Afterwards, they never spoke about it.
The incident only truly struck me hours later while I sat in my room. My frustration was mixed with self-hatred over my own ineffectual response. My brain persistently pressured me, asking why I didn’t make more of a big deal of it.
However, what troubled me most was the nonchalant reaction of my friend. At that moment, Martin Luther King’s quote came to mind: ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.’
The decision made by Premier League teams to consistently take the knee after 2020 felt like true allyship. In our age of fads that burst into the public consciousness and then disappear just as quickly, it was a real promise of support, carved in stone.
English football was standing shoulder to shoulder with anyone who experienced discrimination. And now, they have restricted this to special occasions, and therefore diluted the strength of the support they claim they are committed to providing.
The best way to tackle racism is through a zero tolerance approach, which is why the Premier League’s ‘no room for racism’ slogan is important.
More needs to be done to publicise methods of reporting it, such as through the organisation Kick it Out, which aims to help put an end to discrimination in sport. More education is needed too, but ultimately, the Premier League players should really reconsider this latest decision regarding the knee.
I think back to Martin Luther King’s quote. While it is true that silence from people who should be your allies is soul-crushing, a slow, steady retreat from what was once consistent support can be just as bad.
Perhaps it’s worse because you come to depend on something, savour it, believe – and then it fades.
The Premier League players stood shoulder to shoulder with us, and now it feels like they’ve taken a step back.
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