Footballers on Their Knees: Will the Symbolic Sign of Support for Blacks Be Prevented?

Since the return of the English Premier League, after the Coronavirus pandemic, a symbolic move against racism has spread, represented by the players getting down on their knees before the start of the matches as a reminder of the dramatic death of George Floyd in May 2020, at the hands of the American police.

The British newspaper Daily Mail revealed that the movement might be abandoned by the English Football Association, which held a meeting with the leaders of the twenty teams active in the English Premier League in order to study the idea.

One of the solutions proposed by some team leaders is to keep the movement in the matches of the first week of the league, which will start next weekend, as well as to do it during the periods that witness the anti-racism days in October and March of each year.

The English Premier League stated that the final decision would be left to the players because a radical solution is not reached in the current period.

It is noteworthy that the first official match in England, which was held on July 30, within the Community Shield Cup, between Liverpool and Manchester City, witnessed, before its start, the players descending on their knees, which means that no final decision has been reached so far.

 

Repealing Prevention Rules

Officials in the American Football Association are considering repealing the rule that prevents players from kneeling during the national anthem.

The ESPN network indicated on its website that the president of the American Federation, Cindy Barlow-Cohn, hopes to raise this issue during the board of directors meeting scheduled for Tuesday before a spokesman for the association later confirmed that the latter "will consider canceling the rule."

The Federation had previously issued this decision in 2017, which requires players to "stand respectfully" during the national anthem.

The move came after the star of the national team, Megan Rapinoe, kneeled on one knee in 2016 in solidarity with her compatriot Colin Kaepernick, the former player of the San Francisco American Football Club, who kneeled on one knee during the national anthem earlier in the same year to call on his country to protect the rights of Americans from police violence, especially against black people.

Kneeling on one knee has become a symbolic sign of solidarity and returned to the fore with the protests in the United States following the killing of an African-American citizen, George Floyd, on May 25 by a white policeman after he pressed his knee on his neck for minutes without to heed his soliloquy "I can't breathe."

The symbolic sign of solidarity spread to the stadiums of Europe, where many players in the German League showed their solidarity with Floyd by kneeling on one knee, in addition to the English teams of Liverpool and Chelsea during the training sessions.

 

Solidarity With Ukraine

Symbolic signs of solidary in Football stadiums are not limited to racism against the Blacks. Other forms of solidarity emerged, mainly after the War in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian player Ruslan Malinovskyi, a professional with the Italian club Atlanta, prepared well for the match that brought his team to Olympiacos of Greece last February in the second leg of the European Football League play-off.

Good preparation was not limited to mental and physical preparation for the match; the Ukrainian player was carrying a second shirt with the words "No to War on Ukraine" written on it. It was his way of rejecting the expanded Russian military operation against his hometown. Malinovskyi was not afraid of the consequences of lifting the shirt, and his colleagues were not afraid of the consequences of showing their solidarity with their colleagues.

Malinovskyi opened the door for many expressions of solidarity with Ukraine in European stadiums. In the English city of Manchester, Manchester City players wore shirts bearing the message "No to War" in February, while Everton players wrapped the Ukrainian flags around their shoulders before the start of the match that brings them together in the league draw.

The media showed a state of grand celebration for these manifestations of solidarity.

 

'But Not With Gaza'

The messages of solidarity with Ukraine were not followed by any talk of sanctions or investigation but were celebrated in the Western media and considered a message of peace.

Six years ago, not far from England, specifically in the match between the Scottish club Celtic and Hapoel Beersheba, the fans of the Scottish club raised the flags of Palestine, but the reaction here differed. Supporting Palestinians is something that contravenes the Federation's regulations that ensure the separation between politics and sports.

In 2008, the CAF warned the retired Egyptian Mohamed Aboutrika after he lifted a shirt that read "Sympathy with Gaza" in a match that brought his country against Sudan in the African Nations Cup.

At the time, Beninese referee Coffi Codjia issued a yellow card to Aboutrika because of this behavior, and CAF officials said they had warned him for allegedly violating the rules that stipulate not displaying political slogans during matches.

All positions were received by the continental federations very firmly in order to implement the FIFA regulations, "No to mixing sports with politics," a rule that football officials always seek to establish.

FIFA regulations are already keen to separate sport from politics. Article 16 of the FIFA Disciplinary Procedures Manual states that the use of gestures, words, objects, or any other means to convey a provocative message that is unsuitable for a sporting event, especially provocative messages of political and ideological, religious, or offensive nature, are prohibited.

Yet, no one spoke of that material when European stadiums were dressed in the distinctive yellow and blue colors of the Ukrainian flag.

Although FIFA issued the list of disciplinary measures that contain Article 16, it decided to ban the Russian national team from all international competitions, which excludes it from the qualifiers for the World Cup 2022.

According to a statement issued by the Federation, the matter will not stop there, as FIFA spoke about talks it will be conducting with other sports organizations regarding the expulsion of Russia from the competitions.