Former Swansea City player Yan Dhanda (right) takes a knee before a game against Reading in 2021
Swansea City’s players will no longer take the knee before games this season, the club has confirmed.
The practice of taking the knee before matches became widespread in 2020 as a statement against racism following the murder of George Floyd in the US.
Swansea have taken the knee before every game since and said the decision to stop was “not taken lightly.”
The club said “discrimination of any nature is abhorrent and has no place in football or society. “
“We remain firmly in support of what taking the knee stands for and represents,” a statement said.
- Where does ‘taking a knee’ come from?
“Taking the knee has undoubtedly helped to raise awareness and encourage conversations about how to remove racism from the game we all love.
“But we feel we want to take responsibility as a group and find alternative ways to show our commitment to inclusion and diversity, and we feel that needs to run deeper than taking the knee each time we play.”
The club added that it was committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and would continue to work alongside the Swansea City AFC Foundation in promoting the message “that football, and sport in general, is for everyone.”
Swansea said it had “first-hand experience of the devastating impact discriminatory abuse” can have with several of their players being targeted for racial abuse on social media.
Ben Cabango as well as former Swansea players Jamal Lowe and Yan Dhanda were racially abused on social media.
In April 2021 the club announced a week-long social media boycott on all platforms to combat abuse and discrimination, which was followed by a number of other clubs and organizations.
Source: GhanaSoccernet