Three Premier League players refused to take the knee on Saturday as the league’s latest ‘No Room For Racism’ campaign got under way.
Everton’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles remained standing before his side’s home match against Chelsea, while Marc Guehi and Issa Diop did not kneel ahead of Manchester City’s game against Ipswich at the Etihad Stadium.
The reasons for the players’ decisions have not been disclosed. Their stance came despite the rest of their team-mates taking part in the pre-match gesture.
The Premier League has made the gesture available across the next two gameweeks in October, describing the initiative as a way to reaffirm “the commitment to tackling discrimination and highlight the importance of diversity in football”.
Why Premier League players have questioned the gesture
Several footballers have previously questioned whether taking the knee retains the impact it once had. Former Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha described it as “degrading” in 2021, saying he had been taught by his parents to be proud to be Black and that players should “stand tall”.
Ivan Toney also said players were being “used as puppets”, while former Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso chose to point towards the Premier League’s ‘No Room For Racism’ badge on his sleeve rather than kneel.
The pre-match action was introduced in the UK in 2020 after the death of George Floyd in police custody in the United States sparked the Black Lives Matter movement. It was performed before every match for a period, before that policy was ended in August 2022.
It was subsequently limited to match rounds during the ‘No Room For Racism’ campaign, although Premier League captains also agreed to continue taking the knee twice each season.
There have been other examples of players choosing not to participate. Dominic Calvert-Lewin did so during Burnley’s match against Leeds last year, while Crysencio Summerville has also been known to remain standing. Luton said ahead of the 2021-22 season that their players would stand together in the centre circle instead.
The gesture has also faced opposition from some supporters. Burnley captain Ben Mee said in 2021 that booing the players “doesn’t look good on those individuals that are booing”, while urging fans to support what players were trying to achieve “as a group of players and a football community”.
England’s decision not to take the knee
The England women’s team opted not to kneel before their Euro 2025 semi-final against Italy after defender Jess Carter was subjected to racist abuse on social media.
Captain Lucy Bronze said the anti-racism message was not “as strong as it used to be”, arguing that more needed to be done in football and society after abuse continued to affect players at major tournaments.
Piara Powar, head of football’s international anti-discrimination body Fare, questioned the decision, while acknowledging that it was the players’ right to make it. He said he did not see a link between the abuse and abandoning the gesture, describing taking the knee as “a powerful anti-racist act”.
Guehi previously attracted attention in 2024 when, as Crystal Palace captain, he wrote “I love Jesus” on a modified captain’s armband issued to Premier League skippers to promote LGBTQ rights.
