BLM is more than just a logo on a shirt, this time it feels like a force for positive change

funding the NHS is anyone’s guess. Most of a Premier League player’s shirt will be an ethical minefield. But not the back of it. The Black Lives Matter logo will be on the shirt for the rest of the season, but, also, for the first 12 matches of Project Restart, footballers’ names will be replaced with ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’.

Now when it comes to gestures, the game has few peers.

Tackle homophobia? Yep, let’s wear rainbow laces, that should do the trick. The sport’s recent history is awash with lip-service slogans and campaigning T-shirts that become little more than souvenirs. But this feels different. Albeit one that is resonating through society worldwide, it is still only a slogan that will stretch between footballers’ shoulders. But the swell of feeling beneath those shoulders suggests this is one movement in the game that is not going to fade away. This is being driven by the players – a group who might, until recently, have been reluctant to speak out on these issues. In a social media post, Ian Wright suggested Troy Deeney and Wes Morgan were two particular driving forces. Raheem Sterling’s Newsnight interview was particularly powerful. This initiative, though, smacks of players beginning to fully realise their collective power. For too long, they have been casually grouped together with negative connotations. The modern reality is that, grouped together, they are a force for positive change.

The current climate has had an effect on the authorities.

The outlawing of shirt-removing was a regulation once closely protected by the game’s rule-makers.

Not any longer. The Black Lives Matter movement will feature in many, many goal celebrations.

Not only that, the Premier League – in its statement of support of the players – practically encouraged them to take a knee before or during games.

Also in support are the FA, the EFL, the PFA, the LMA, the PGMOL and the clubs. In other words, the players are taking the authorities with them.

The real trick is getting those authorities to urgently and properly tackle the appalling lack of diversity in their own boardrooms and in the coaching ranks.

All previous starts made on that front have fizzled out, but this, hopefully, is about more than just a slogan on a congested jersey.

This feels different.

HAD Tyson Fury not namechecked him, Daniel Kinahan’s involvement in boxing would have remained generally unnoticed.

He has been a mover and shaker in the sport for some time, but now Fury (left) has given him worldwide exposure, his background has rightly come under some intense scrutiny.

It will now be up to broadcasters and the sport’s controllers if they want to be involved with a character such as Kinahan. It is not the first time boxing has faced this dilemma.

And, in the debate, money always talks loudest.