STAMP IT OUT
Defoe is hopeful players can make difference in fight against racism
JERMAIN DEFOE hopes the sight of footballers taking the knee will help put an end to the kind of racial abuse suffered by Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos last week.
Morelos was subjected to a racial slur during a live social media broadcast on Friday, just a few hours after he and his team-mates had joined the players of Olympique Lyonnais, Nice and Celtic in making the gesture before kick-off in the pre-season Veolia Trophy in Lyon.
Police say they have been ‘made aware of offensive comments online’ and are carrying out inquiries.
The players took the knee again before the second round of games, with Rangers going on to defeat Nice 2-0 and pick up the trophy on Saturday night.
Proud to have been part of the display of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, Defoe hopes attitudes can be changed by the sight of footballers acting in unison.
‘It’s all about education,’ said the former
England striker. ‘But it’s really hard to understand how people can have so much hate inside them that they can judge someone by the colour of their skin. ‘You’d like to think that society had moved on from that. But with these powerful messages, taking one knee and everyone doing it, if we continue to do it, hopefully at some point Alfredo won’t be getting it. ‘I don’t think it affected Alfredo. ‘Obviously it’s not nice, obviously you’re angry, and you shouldn’t have to deal with that. ‘You’d rather someone call you a name than judge you on the colour of your skin. It’s quite sad really.’ The pre-match sight of teams taking the knee has become a routine occurrence since the English Premier League restarted after lockdown in June and a Black Lives Matter badge now adorns the jerseys of all member clubs. Objections have been raised — some from those harbouring concerns around the politicisation of the movement to others who continue to peddle prejudice. Defoe continued: ‘You get different opinions — some people might think we shouldn’t be doing it. But at the end of the day it’s so nice to see everyone do it. It’s a powerful message. ‘Everyone else has been doing it, which is really good, because we have this platform as footballers. ‘Before we came back, watching the Premier League and Bundesliga resume and seeing all the players do it was really good and really nice.’ Connor Goldson, meanwhile, insists he and his team-mates had been hurt by a negative reaction from some Rangers fans after the Ibrox players took the knee before the friendlies against Lyon and Nice. Goldson posted a screenshot of a reply to his earlier Instagram post, in which a user said the defender should ‘leave our club ASAP’. The defender wrote: ‘I’m not doing this for attention, or for anyone to feel sorry for me. ‘But these are fans of OUR club. I know it’s a minority and I’m not suggesting otherwise, however as a majority who stand by us we need to make a stand to be heard. What I will say is players see these comments and they hurt us!’ The post followed an earlier statement from Goldson yesterday, in which he called the distasteful replies to an official Rangers Twitter post that showed squad members taking the knee as ‘disgusting’. He wrote: ‘Let’s try again. The hate and ignorance in the comments of the last picture were disgusting but not surprising. This isn’t about politics it’s about equality!!! We all need educating, myself included!’