Standing while others kneel
Marc Guéhi stayed on his feet and applauded before Manchester City’s game at Aston Villa on Saturday, while the players around him took a knee. He was not alone. Issa Diop did the same for Ipswich against Nottingham Forest on Friday night, the only one of the 22 players on the pitch who did not kneel.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles of Everton, Dominic Calvert-Lewin of Leeds and Tyler Adams and Rayan of Bournemouth have also remained upright this weekend, during the Premier League’s “No Room For Racism” weekend, part of a campaign launched last week.
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A gesture “that has lost its meaning”
Guéhi said before City’s Champions League game against AEK Athens in midweek that the gesture had lost its meaning. The kneel has not been compulsory since August 2022. It was introduced in England in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd and now appears only on designated weekends.
Club captains agreed before the season to keep it twice across the 38 rounds, both times in October.
Leeds manager Daniel Farke explained Calvert-Lewin’s thinking last week, in remarks carried by the Daily Mail, saying the striker shows his respect by standing. Farke added that each person expresses support for the campaign in their own way.
Opposition to the gesture is not new. Wilfried Zaha called it humiliating in 2021, saying he had been taught to stand tall and be proud of being Black.
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