why do some teams take the knee and some don't over the past year or two you must
have noticed players taking the knee just before kickoff in football games and you also probably
already know that they do that in support of the fight against racism and discrimination
kneeling to show solidarity has been a thing for years and even decades but it seemed to
come back alive in sports when colin kaepernick of the nfl took a knee while the national anthem
was being sung in a pre-season game in 2016 to protest racism in the united states years later
it was adopted by football players as they seem to always be at the receiving end of online hate
and racial abuse in the 2020 and 2021 season it became such a common thing to see players take a
knee before kickoff of games in the premier league every player takes a knee to show their support
for the movement even the match officials join in too so if you hardly watch club games outside the
premier league you really would have thought it was a normal thing well at least until euro 2020
which happened in the summer of 2021 because of the pandemic which hit the globe in 2020
this was the first major international football competition since taking a knee became a thing
in football so for those who only watched the premier league it must have been a bit shocking to
see that things were a bit different elsewhere of course the english players took a knee before all
their games including the final in wembley wales also did belgium too but the rest of the national
teams either didn't take a knee at all throughout the tournament or did only in a few games
germany for example took a knee in their knockout game against england presumably
inspired by the three lions but it is something most of the german players were already used to
as bundesliga teams also started taking a knee after the inhumane killing of george floyd by an
american policeman in the united states scotland italy portugal and switzerland were some of the
teams who also showed allegiance to the movement by taking a knee but didn't do it in all of their
euro 2020 games while teams like croatia czech republic and poland did not take a knee in any
of their games but pointed to the respect badge on their sleeves while their opponents took a knee
seeing some teams take a knee while the others didn't felt odd for many especially in the same
game when one side knelt while the other team just stood so people began to ask questions why do some
take a knee while others don't before we continue if you love football and want to know all the
details about your favorite footballers and teams be sure to hit that subscribe button and turn on
the bell notification so you never miss an upload let's jump right back into the video players take
a knee before kickoff to show their support of the movement against racism however this
does not automatically mean that the other teams not taking the need do not support the movement
for some of the teams who didn't take a knee it was because they simply didn't know it was a thing
granted they must have seen it done in the premier league a couple of times but many players who play
outside the uk have said that they thought it was just an england thing to kneel for example before
england and denmark faced off in the semi-final of the tournament of course the english players
took a knee but the danes didn't join in however they stood and applauded the english players as
they demonstrated the danes also applauded in the games against belgium and wales earlier in
the tournament when their opponents also took the knee from that repeated gesture you can tell that
they don't oppose the movement it's even hard to say that they were apathetic they did not actively
protest but surely they showed their support for the english welsh and belgium players who did
also david alaba the captain of the austrian side said in a press conference during the
euro 2020 tournament that the austrian national team were in support of kneeling before kickoff
he went further to say that if they were asked to take a knee they surely would the austrian side
however did not play against any side who took the knee during the competition so perhaps that's why
we never got to see them take a knee in any of the games for some others they believe taking a
knee is political and that's why they don't join in the demonstration before football games people
of this school of thought strongly believe that football and politics should not mix and therefore
for them taking a knee is okay but should not be done before during or after football games
for example the president of the polish fa said outright that he is against the gesture
during games according to him it achieves nothing he went further to say that many footballers who
take a knee before matches if asked would not be able to explain the significance of the gesture
however this claim that the gesture is political has been debunked several times by supporters of
the black lives matter movement they say that matters of discrimination against humans cannot
be said to be political especially when too many people have lost their lives as a result of that
discrimination finally there is another group of players who would love to take the knee and show
their support for the movement but cannot because of external pressures for example players of the
french national team would apparently love to join in their gesture as a matter of fact they
even did in their euro 2020 warm-up game against wales but they received some serious backlash
from some parts of the french media because of that and since then they've not taken a
knee again the captain of the french side hugo lloris said later that they're not taking a knee
does not mean that they don't support the cause an anonymous member of the france euro 2020 squad was
however more forthright on the matter according to him the real reason they stopped taking the knee
was because of the reactions the gesture received when they did he said that it seemed the act was
doing more dividing than uniting the slovaks also had a similar experience they took a knee
in two friendly games in 2020 against scotland and ireland but they received criticism from the
slovakian parliament since then the members of the squad have not joined in the gesture again
so essentially players take a knee to show their support for the anti-racism movement
meanwhile others do not because they don't want to or because they just can't even if they do
want to whatever the case is it would be great if we could all just support the fight against racism
lend our voices to the movement in any way we can don't forget to subscribe to our channel and
turn on the bell notification so you don't miss any of our videos catch you in the next one bye