Zaha Becomes First Premier League Player Not To Take A Knee
Wilfried Zaha chose to stand ahead of Crystal Palace’s match against West Brom to become the first player in the Premier League to stop taking the knee.
Last month Zaha revealed that he would stop taking the knee and also indicated he was uncomfortable with wearing anti-racism slogans on his match jersey.
Having not started in Palace’s 4-1 defeat against Tottenham last time out, Zaha’s actions were not under scrutiny. But starting against West Brom the winger was the only player from the 22 on the pitch to stand before kick-off.
Speaking on the On the Judy podcast, Zaha said: ‘The whole kneeling down – why must I kneel down for you to show that we matter? Why must I even wear Black Lives Matter on the back of my top to show you that we matter? This is all degrading stuff.
‘When people constantly want to get me to do Black Lives Matter talks and racial talks and I’m like, I’m not doing it just so you can put ‘Zaha spoke for us’. Like a tick box, basically.
‘I’m not doing any more, because unless things change. I’m not coming to chat to you just for the sake of it, like all the interviews I’ve done. All these platforms – you see what’s happening, you see people making fake accounts to abuse black people constantly, but you don’t change it.
‘So don’t tell me to come and chat about stuff that’s not going to change. Change it. All that stuff that you lot are doing, all these charades mean nothing.’
Central to Zaha’s frustration is not the meaning of the gestures themselves – he has been left frustrated at interpretations that he is against the Black Lives Matter movement – but that some consider them alone enough in the fight against racism, leading to his calls for much greater action.
Prior to the game against Tottenham, Crystal Palace gave their support to Zaha in whatever stance he takes with regards to taking a knee and carrying slogans on his match shirt.
Outside of the Premier League several clubs, including Brentford last month, have stopped making the gesture.
Brentford said in a statement that players decided to stop taking a knee as they ‘no longer feel that it is making an impact’.
It has been an issue that Zaha has spoken openly about on more than one occasion.
While he was acting alone on Saturday afternoon prior to Crystal Palace’s game against West Brom, he wants his peers to join him in shunning taking a knee.
Zaha speaking at February’s Financial Times’ Business of Football summit, said: ‘I’ve said before that I feel like taking the knee is degrading and stuff because growing up my parents just let me know that I should be proud to be black no matter what and I feel like we should just stand tall.
‘Trying to get the meaning behind it, it’s becoming something that we just do now and that’s not enough for me.
‘I’m not going to take the knee, I’m not going to wear Black Lives Matter on the back of my shirt because it feels like it’s a target. We’re trying to say that we’re equal but we’re isolating ourselves with these things that aren’t even working anyway, so that’s my stand on it.
‘I feel like we should stand tall. Now I don’t really tend to speak on racism and stuff like that because I’m not here just to tick boxes. Unless action is going to happen, don’t speak to me about it.’
Despite criticisms of the ‘charade’ from Zaha, Premier League CEO Richard Masters confirmed that players will continue to kneel in protest against racism before matches until at least the end of the 2020-21 season.
Players have been taking a knee since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year and Masters has revealed that discussions are being held about extending the gesture prior to the 2021-22 campaign.
‘Anti-discrimination is something we are really committed to,’ Masters told Sky Sports. ‘Last week we announced our ‘No Room for Racism’ action plan. Unfortunately, we have had to take on the social media companies with regards to online abuse.
‘You will see for the rest of this season more anti-racism messages on player’s shirts and the continuation of taking the knee until the end of the season.
‘It has never been an instruction, it has always been a personal choice. We have had remarkable unanimity up to this point and I expect that to continue.
‘We will discuss with the players in the close season what we are going to do to continue to make our feelings clear about anti-discrimination messaging going forward.’
Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo took a different view to Zaha as he encouraged players to continue taking the knee, believing that it is unrealistic to expect an immediate impact from doing so.
Santo, the only BAME manager operating in the top division, produced an impassioned defence.
‘I will continue to do it,’ he said. ‘I will continue to do it because it is a way to show my position and my idea on it, and if one day I will do it by myself, if they give me the chance, I will do it.
‘We cannot give up. The results don’t come immediately but you cannot give up. It’s a long, long battle that we have to do. We cannot give up even if the impact is not immediate.
‘Through time we will reach it.’
There have been a number of instances this season where Premier League players have been targeted by vile abuse on social media after matches.
Chelsea defender Reece James has since deleted his Instagram account, almost six weeks after sharing some of the disgusting racist abuse he received online.
The England star posted a screenshot of the abusive messages he received back on January 29, writing ‘Something needs to change!’ alongside the image.
In a series of direct messages on Instagram, James was called a ‘monkey’ and asked how he could live with ‘f****** dirty black skin’.
In February, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich wrote to every player to tell them that he was ‘appalled’ at the abuse suffered by James. He also pledged to provide additional funding for the club’s anti-racism efforts.
Abramovich wrote: ‘I am appalled by the racist abuse targeted at Reece on social media. Racism has no place in our club nor in our society. Our club is committed to fighting racism, antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.
‘It shocks me that only days after we commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day, we as a society do not seem to have learned the lessons of our shared past and the consequences that hate and discrimination can have.
‘We cannot allow this to continue unchecked. I have therefore directed the board to further increase the club’s efforts in this area and I will personally direct more funds towards this important work.’
James is not the only player to be targeted by racist trolls online this season, with Manchester United trio Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Axel Tuanzebe among those to have been abused on social media.
Earlier this year, Sportsmail revealed that English football is challenging social media companies to prove they are serious about protecting players from sickening online abuse.
English football’s key stakeholders are lobbying companies such as Twitter and Instagram to implement greater self-governance with regards to online abuse — in particular ensuring all accounts are verified so anyone guilty is identifiable.
Led by the chair of the FA’s inclusion advisory board Paul Elliott, representatives from the governing body — and England stars Jordan Henderson and Tyrone Mings — held talks with Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden and senior minister Nigel Huddleston about discrimination in football earlier this year.