Row threatens to dent England feel-good factor

LONDON: England is preparing to host its biggest football party for a generation but home matches at Euro 2020 risk being overshadowed by a row over players taking the knee to highlight racial injustice. Manager Gareth Southgate says his England players will continue the kneeling gesture adopted in the Premier League, despite boos by some fans before recent friendlies against Austria and Romania.

The jeers were drowned out by applause at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium, but there are fears England’s European Championship opener against Croatia today could be blighted by an embarrassing repeat. Players in England’s top flight have been going down on one knee before kick-off since George Floyd, who was black, was killed by a white police officer in the United States last year.

Matches had largely taken place in empty stadiums as a result of coronavirus restrictions, but now fans are back the issue has been thrust front and center. All three of England’s group matches are at Wembley, as are the semifinals and final of the panEuropean tournament, turning it into a virtual home event for Southgate’s men. They will also play at Wembley in the last 16 should they top Group D.

Brendan Clarke-Smith, a lawmaker for Britain’s ruling Conservative Party, wrote on Facebook that taking the knee “now comes across as little more than habitual tokenism and has lost its effect”. In contrast, the opposition Labour party’s John McDonnell said the booing of the gesture was “racism”. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was initially equivocal over the booing but his spokesman has made it clear that he “would like everyone to get behind the team to cheer them on, not boo”.

Ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick started kneeling to protest against racial injustice in 2016 and the gesture has become a familiar sight across a range of sports since the Floyd murder. Piara Powar, executive director of anti-discrimination organization the Fare Network, told AFP that taking the knee was still a meaningful act, which had sparked a “culture war-type debate”. “It is something that is impactful,” he said. “If it wasn’t impactful, people wouldn’t be booing it.” —AFP