Zaha breaks ranks as he vows to boycott taking-a-knee protest
Palace striker first top-flight player to turn away from gesture ‘I’m not here to tick boxes. I just think we should stand tall’
Wilfried Zaha has become the first Premier League player to vow to stop taking a knee, as he called for football to move on from the “degrading” anti-racism protest.
The Crystal Palace forward suggested the demonstration sparked by Black Lives Matter was becoming meaningless, and said he “feels like it’s a target” for abuse. His vehement opposition comes despite antidiscrimination campaigners and unions saying the vast majority of footballers want to continue the gesture before kick-offs.
England manager Gareth Southgate said this week the gesture was still “hugely powerful”. But Zaha, a frequent victim of oline abuse, suggested he wanted no part “because I’m not here just to tick boxes”.
“I feel like taking a knee is degrading,” he told the Financial Times Business of Football summit yesterday. “Growing up, my parents just let me know that I should just be proud to be black, no matter what. I just think we should stand tall.” His comments come after a week in which Championship side Brentford released a statement saying their players would no longer be joining the protest.
Zaha, 28, said the impact of the protest had diminished since it was introduced following Project Restart. “Taking the knee now, we do it before games and sometimes people forget that we have to do it before games and people pass the ball before and think, ‘Oh’,” said the forward, who has returned to individual training following a hamstring injury.
“The meaning behind the whole thing is becoming something that we just do now. That’s not enough. I’m not going to take the knee, I’m not going to wear Black Lives Matter on the back of my shirt, because it feels like it’s a target. We are trying to say we are equal, but these things are not working.
“We should just stand tall, and now I don’t really tend to speak on racism aspects because I’m not here just to tick boxes. Unless there’s change, don’t ask me about it. Unless action is going to happen, I don’t want to hear about it.”
The protests have polarised opinion in football, particularly below the top tier, but the Professional
Footballers’ Association has consistently said players want to continue, after the initiative was launched by top-tier captains. At the start of this season, the Premier League distanced itself from political elements of the BLM movement by replacing logos on shirts with the message “No Room For Racism”.
Southgate said that he disagreed with the suggestion that it was becoming less impactful, but last night Ged Grebby, chief executive of Show Racism the Red Card, said Zaha’s opinion should be respected as players taking the knee “should only do so consciously”.
“We respect anybody’s right to have any views,” Grebby told The Daily Telegraph. “Les Ferdinand, a founding member of Show Racism the Red Card, expressed views similar to Wilf’s, so that’s entirely within their right and as long as there’s discussion on the issue, if the majority of players are still wanting to take the knee, then certainly we will be behind it.”
Zaha, who has previously taken the knee, said he was “100 per cent” a man of action rather than symbolism. He previously told the On The Judy podcast: “Why must I kneel down for you to show that we matter… why must I even wear Black Lives Matter on my top to show you that we matter? This is all degrading stuff.” Opinion has been most divided in the Championship. Queens Park Rangers had stopped taking a knee after Ferdinand, the club’s director of football, said that the impact had become diluted. English Football League members have met to discuss alternative demonstrations, after anti-blm jeering. Meanwhile, Arsenal chief executive Vinai Venkatesham yesterday told the same summit that social media abuse of black players was the “biggest problem” in football, after striker Eddie Nketiah became the latest target.
Venkatesham revealed how the club was offering psychologists to help players. “Unfortunately, we are getting to a point where this type of abuse is becoming increasingly normalised,” he said.
It has been suggested that a social media boycott by clubs and footballers would put the pressure on social media companies to take stronger action against culprits.