London, Europe Brief News – England national team will take the knee in their World Cup matches as part of No Room For Racism campaign weeks.
The country’s players have held discussions in recent days and decided to carry out the gesture before the opening whistle on Monday.
Gareth Southgate said: “It’s what we stand for as a team, and have done for a long period of time.
“We understand that in the Premier League it’s for certain games, big occasions, and this is the biggest.
“It would be a strong statement to go around the world, and show young people that we see that inclusivity is important.”
The symbolic act, which was thrust into the spotlight when Colin Kaepernick knelt during the U.S. national anthem in 2016, became commonplace in English football after its post-lockdown resumption in the summer of 2020.
It is intended to protest against racism toward the Black community following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests around the world.
The England national team took the knee before all their fixtures at last summer’s European Championships, a gesture that was not without its detractors.
Premier League clubs announced before the start of the 2022-23 season that they would not take the knee before every game but would instead only do so on specific occasions, for instance during October’s “No Room for Racism” initiative.
