Crystal Palace player Wilfried Zaha is the first player in the Premier League to not catch a knee before a game since the show began last season.
Players and officials have been kneeling before games since protests began following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 while in police custody
– Hislop: Football is a great way to drive social change
– Racism Red card flow on ESPN +
– More to do than kneel – Ferdinand
Zaha, who previously said she would kneel before every game, chose to be “embarrassed” and called for a substantial change instead of being used to “put boxes,” he chose to stand before his side face West Brom on Saturday.
“All on his knees – why do I need to kneel down to show you that we matter,” he told the Air podcast Judy. “Why do I even have to wear Black Lives Matter on the back of my roof to show you that we matter? This is a shame.
“When people always ask me to do Black Lives Matter conversations and racial conversations and I guess, I don’t do it just so you can ‘Zaha spoke for us.’ Like a tick box, basically .
“I don’t do it anymore because if things don’t change, I don’t come to talk to you just for it, like every interview I’ve done.”
The Ivory Coast international rose through the Palace academy and has spent 11 seasons of his senior career with them. It is not expected to be against punishment.
Premier League boss Richard Masters said earlier Saturday that players would continue to kneel before games until the end of the season.
“It’s a big statement, it was player-led. We spent a lot of time talking to players. It was an emotional time at the time of the pandemic,” Masters told Sky Sports.
“Going back to Project Restart, when we were talking to players, they wanted to report on their thanks to the NHS and key staff and to taking a stand against the events in America in the future. -summer last year.
“We were happy to support the players. Probably for the first time, we had the Premier League, clubs and players on the same page on an important issue.