Ivan Toney
We touched on this in the last piece on here but Brentford’s promotion to the Premier League will clearly have a pretty profound effect on the Premier League’s ‘taking the knee’ scenario.
Soon after mentioning it I discovered this piece in the Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/06/08/premier-league-players-unity-taking-knee-next-season-doubt-brentfords/ which makes it clear that the Premier League or squads generally need to make a decision.
Brentford decided to stop the practicelast season – a decision taken following talks led by their senior black players.
The view was that it had stopped having an impact and The Telegraph understands barring a squad overhaul it is highly unlikely they will resume doing so next season.
Discussions over the situation and whether other Premier League clubs will continue to take the knee are set to take place as close as possible to the start of the new campaign.
The Bees squad said at the time of making theirs: “This decision has come after lengthy discussions as a group. We have been taking a knee before games since June but, like many of our fellow players at other clubs, no longer believe that this is having an impact. We believe we can use our time and energies to promote racial equality in other ways.
“As a group we are fully behind and proud of Brentford’s desire to become the most inclusive club in the country and the drive towards equality under the #BeeTogether banner. We have experienced racist abuse first hand and have also seen some appalling comments made to other players past and present. There is a clear need to continue to push for an end to all discrimination and, as players, we will be part of that at Brentford FC, in football in general and in the wider community.”
Ivan Toney, the club’s leading goalscorer, later explained the squad’s stance in an interview with talkSPORT, saying it had been down to a lack of action taken to combat racism.
“Everybody knows it’s not getting any better, it’s actually getting worse,” he said.
“You hear about it for a few days, it’s all out there in the papers, it’s on Twitter or whatever – then two days later, back to normal and nothing gets done.”
He added: “It’s kind of a boring cycle that we’re in. Whether it’s people on Twitter writing whatever rubbish, or being brave over a computer, nothing happens and they feel comfortable because they know nothing is going to happen.”
Shortly after Brentford stopped taking the knee, Wilfried Zaha became the first Premier League player to do so, citing similar reasons.
