England coach, Gareth Southgate has come out to say that he feels fans do not understand the message behind players taking a knee. He recently revealed this after the gesture was booed ahead of the friendly win over Austria.
According to him, it seems some football fans believe taking the knee is a political stand that not everyone will agree with, but that is not the case.
He added that players simply take the knee to support one another, and he was happy that the booing was drowned out by the majority of the crowd.
His words, “I did hear it,”
“It’s not something on behalf of our black players that I wanted to hear because it feels as though it is a criticism of them.”
“I think we have got a situation where some people seem to think it is a political stand that they don’t agree with.”
“That’s not the reason the players are doing it. We are supporting each other.”
“I was pleased that was drowned out by the majority of the crowd but we can’t deny the fact that it happened,”
“I think the most important thing for our players to know is that all their team-mates, all the staff are fully supportive.”
“I think the majority of people understand it, some people aren’t quite understanding the message and I suppose we are seeing that across a number of football grounds at the moment.”
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