Guehi among players not to take knee, is it time to ‘move campaign along’?
Premier League clubs performed the pre‑match knee‑down this weekend as part of October’s No Room for Racism campaign, marking the first such gesture of the season. Six players from five different teams chose to stay on their feet during the moment: Tyler Adams and Rayan of Bournemouth, Dominic Calvert‑Lewin of Leeds, Issa Diop of Ipswich, Marc Guehi of Manchester City and Ainsley Maitland‑Niles of Everton.
Before Manchester City’s Champions League match on Tuesday, Guehi was asked whether the gesture had lost its impact. “I haven’t been taking the knee for a while now. I always clap, just because of what that actually signifies,” the England defender said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily a football issue, I think it’s a wider societal issue and football is just that beacon of hope to try and get the message out. The message is still there, which is great. More can always be done. I think we should see how we can move the campaign along.”
The Premier League says the decision to kneel or not is left to the players and it respects whatever stance they adopt. The league first introduced the knee‑down in 2020 after the death of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests. An agreement among club captains limited the gesture to selected matches for the 2022‑23 season, and this year captains agreed to use it during October’s No Room for Racism fixtures, which coincide with Black History Month in the UK.
The other five players who stood up have not spoken publicly, but Leeds manager Daniel Farke explained Calvert‑Lewin’s choice. “Dom is more or less like, ‘no, I don’t go down. I show my respect by standing up’. Every individual is different and shows respect for this campaign in a different way,” he said. “It’s definitely a good campaign and a good topic that football and sports, in general, support situations like this because a dressing room is a perfect example of how we should all live together.”
Wilfried Zaha, a former Crystal Palace forward, became the first Premier League player to stop kneeling in 2021. At the time he said, “I feel kneeling has just become a part of the pre‑match routine and at the moment it doesn’t matter whether we kneel or stand, some of us still continue to receive abuse.”
The Premier League announced this month’s campaign, stating that players will take the knee before kick‑off during the next two rounds of matches to demonstrate unity against discrimination. Kick It Out told BBC Sport that the gesture “still has value in raising awareness of the structural inequalities that exist in football and society” and acknowledged that players may feel frustration with the pace of change.
Reports of discrimination and racism received by the charity more than doubled between the 2021‑22 and 2025‑26 seasons, reaching a record high last season. High‑profile incidents continue to surface. After England defender Jess Carter was subjected to racist abuse online during the Women’s Euros last summer, the Lionesses stopped taking the knee. England manager Sarina Wiegman said at the time, “Taking the knee, that’s not enough. We have done that for a while. The impact is not good enough, it’s not as big as we think.”
In February, Burnley midfielder Hannibal Mejbri, Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana, Wolves striker Tolu Arokodare and Sunderland winger Romaine Mundle all faced racist abuse on social media over a single weekend. A BBC Sport investigation identified 22,389 potentially abusive messages across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X during another weekend.
A 2025 YouGov poll found that a majority of ethnic‑minority football fans in Britain still consider taking the knee an important tool against racism, although most football fans overall in England did not share that view.
The No Room for Racism campaign goes beyond the knee‑down. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said, “We are using the reach of our players to send an important message: we are united in the fight against racism.” Players have also helped create educational resources on diversity that are now used by more than 19,000 primary schools across England and Wales. Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk added, “I think it’s important for young people to see role models who look like them, to see that they can achieve anything. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do or how you look. It means a lot to me to represent my community on and off the pitch.”