Why booing the knee is wrong

Sport and politics have always been inextricably bound together. The return of international football has allowed England players to take the knee in a united display against racial discrimination in all forms.

However, this powerful message has been booed by so called ‘fans’ in games against Austria and Romania. The message of the Knee has been manipulated by right-wing figureheads who claim they want to “keep politics out of football this summer”. But the deep irony is that these are the figures who politicised the symbol to exploit and exacerbate racial divides.

Taking the knee first came to prominence across the Atlantic in the NFL. In 2016, San Francisco quarter-back Colin Kaepernick decided to kneel before games during the national anthem in protest against the police brutality suffered by African-Americans. Kaepernick was subject to wide-scale abuse for disrespecting the anthem and the American flag. He was subsequently blackballed by the NFL. However, the legacy of his symbol was born.

Kaepernick’s kneeling was a peaceful gesture but the message of his protest was hijacked, repurposed and used to attack him. President Donald Trump said at a rally: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’”

Trump lay the blueprint for politicians to misconstrue a simple anti-racism message and capitalise by enraging their support bases fuelled by nationalism and hatred. The exact same method is being executed in England.

The England players and manager Gareth Southgate reiterated that the kneeling is “a show of solidarity with the Black community, including members of our squad who themselves continue to suffer abuse on a regular basis.” Despite this, Nigel Farage condemned the England players for kneeling before the game and encouraged fans to boo “when players take the knee for Marxist BLM”.

There has been a conscious effort by right-wing media and politicians to connect Black Lives Matter with Marxism to attempt to discredit the movement

Farage has actively chosen to connect the knee with Marxism. It sounds absurd… but it works to push his divisive rhetoric. But what is this connection?

There has been a conscious effort by right-wing media and politicians to connect Black Lives Matter with Marxism to attempt to discredit the movement. The Daily Mail called Black Lives Matter co-founder, Alicia Garza, a “Trained Marxist” and the Telegraph claimed that the “Marxist-chic BLM is a disturbing threat to racial progress”. The Black Lives Matter movement’s attempt to challenge racial injustice is vilified by right-wing media which resorts to scaremongering tactics to agitate and unsettle white people. A narrative of a violent, communist, white-hating political group is cultivated to scare and sell.

Farage also wrote of his wish to “keep politics out of football this summer”. If that is genuinely what he believes and wants then why don’t we imagine football without politics?

For a start the national anthems will have to be scrapped. If I am going to be as pedantic as Farage, then it is difficult to see a pre-game calling to God to protect an unaccountable monarchy as anything but a nationalist, political chant. Why should players and fans be subject to a minute of appraisal for a Queen to “reign over us”? I don’t think Farage would approve of this change given his disdain after he “noticed Jeremy Corbyn not uttering a word of the national anthem” at the Battle of Britain service in 2015. But let’s keep politics out of football hey?

Next, all symbols with any connotation of politics will have to be removed. From the poppy to black armbands – they would have to go. The wearing of the poppy is supposed to commemorate those who died in conflict in WWI, however it has grown to represent all those who sacrificed themselves in all British conflicts. 

The symbol of the poppy is worn on player’s shirts in November games in the lead-up to Remembrance Day and occurs every year. As has the abuse Irish footballer James McClean suffers in the wake of his refusal to wear one. McClean believes for him to wear the poppy “would be as much a gesture of disrespect for the innocent people who lost their lives in the Troubles – and Bloody Sunday especially – as I have in the past been accused of disrespecting the victims of WWI and WWII”.

Those critical of Black Lives Matter conveniently pick and choose when it is applicable to reject a symbol

Those who lambasted McClean appear to be similar to those booing players taking the knee. DUP Politician Gregory Campbell attacked McClean as getting “up to his old tricks” in 2016. And in 2021, as he believed the presence of black people in Songs of Praise was “the BBC at its BLM (Black Lives Matter) worst”, Campbell continued: “The singers were all very good but can you imagine an all-white line up with an all-white jury and presented by a white person? No, I can’t either.”

It is almost as if those critical of Black Lives Matter conveniently pick and choose when it is applicable to reject a symbol. It is not ok for someone to refuse to wear a poppy or someone to refuse to sing the anthem, but it is ok for fans to refuse to kneel?

It is not possible to pick and choose when football is political or not. They will forever be inseparable and no more so than this summer. Marcus Rashford has effectively become a political activist over the past year and Raheem Sterling has become a leading figure in the fight against racism. These players are not just footballers. They are people capable of real political change.

The England team is as diverse as it has ever been. Raheem Sterling could have played for Jamaica, Bukayo Saka could have played for Nigeria, Jack Grealish and Declan Rice represented Ireland at various levels. Despite this group of people from various ethnicities and backgrounds, they are all united in kneeling against all forms of racism.

If a fan chooses to boo the knee, it is not because they are against politics in football or if they are against Marxism. An active and vocalised criticism of an anti-racism gesture is simply because you are offended by that message. If you feel attacked by a message of anti-racism, then perhaps you are the problem, not the players.