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Thread: Brentford to stop taking a knee

  1. #1

    Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Is this a good or a bad thing? Will other clubs follow on from this?

    Your views please gents. Let's have a good old fashioned debate without slagging any other posters political views off....

    Brentford will no longer take a knee before games because they feel the gesture against discrimination no longer has the required impact.

    Sunday's game against Barnsley will be the first in which they have not taken part in the pre-match kneel.

    In a statement, the Championship side's squad said racism was "the opposite of what we stand for".

    "There is a clear need to continue to push for an end to all discrimination," the statement added.

    "We believe we can use our time and energies to promote racial equality in other ways."

    They also reiterated support for the club's #BeeTogether inclusivity drive, and would continue to support clubs who did wish to take a knee at games.

    West London neighbours Queens Park Rangers had already stopped taking the knee as the club felt the effect was "diluted", although they did join Millwall in doing so in a fixture after players had been booed in the Lions' previous match.

    Middlesbrough stopped doing so for similar reasons as captain Britt Assombalonga said change was now required after the initial success of the gesture, while Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha said the knee gesture was "degrading" in a recent newspaper interview.

    The taking a knee gesture was inspired by NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who decided on the silent protest against racial oppression by kneeling during the national anthem.

    "Taking a knee is just one way our players have been showing their commitment," Brentford chief executive Jon Varney said.

    "We supported their desire to do it and we now support their desire to focus on other ways to show this commitment. We have been very clear in our ambition to be the most inclusive club in the country and our players want to and will play a big part on this journey."

  2. #2

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Soul '68 View Post
    Is this a good or a bad thing? Will other clubs follow on from this?

    Your views please gents. Let's have a good old fashioned debate without slagging any other posters political views off....

    Brentford will no longer take a knee before games because they feel the gesture against discrimination no longer has the required impact.

    Sunday's game against Barnsley will be the first in which they have not taken part in the pre-match kneel.

    In a statement, the Championship side's squad said racism was "the opposite of what we stand for".

    "There is a clear need to continue to push for an end to all discrimination," the statement added.

    "We believe we can use our time and energies to promote racial equality in other ways."

    They also reiterated support for the club's #BeeTogether inclusivity drive, and would continue to support clubs who did wish to take a knee at games.

    West London neighbours Queens Park Rangers had already stopped taking the knee as the club felt the effect was "diluted", although they did join Millwall in doing so in a fixture after players had been booed in the Lions' previous match.

    Middlesbrough stopped doing so for similar reasons as captain Britt Assombalonga said change was now required after the initial success of the gesture, while Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha said the knee gesture was "degrading" in a recent newspaper interview.

    The taking a knee gesture was inspired by NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who decided on the silent protest against racial oppression by kneeling during the national anthem.

    "Taking a knee is just one way our players have been showing their commitment," Brentford chief executive Jon Varney said.

    "We supported their desire to do it and we now support their desire to focus on other ways to show this commitment. We have been very clear in our ambition to be the most inclusive club in the country and our players want to and will play a big part on this journey."
    The trouble with any thread like this is that they always break down along the political lines you want to avoid and we get pages and pages of the same sort of debate we get each time.

  3. #3

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    I agree with their decision

  4. #4

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    All clubs mentioned recognise that additional actions were always needed, and now time for these additional actions to be the primary focus. Might just be smart PR but it's a world away from Millwall wanting to appease fans who opposed anti-racism changes.

  5. #5

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    It's their choice, does it mean they don't support the fight against racism? Of course not.

    Will some thick racists somewhere, use this as propoganda and a reason to further fight back against the recent wave of people taking a stand (ironic I know), probably.

    As long as we continue to fight back against all forms of racism and bigotry, I personally don't care how we do it.

  6. #6

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    On the one hand you'll get the racists taking this as a victory as "we beat the knee!".

    On the other hand what is "taking the knee" accomplishing anymore? If the most a protest is gonna do is kneel down for 3 seconds before a football match then I imagine the people who'd like the 'status quo' to continue would be happy for them to keep doing it.

  7. #7

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    An interesting contribution to the debate from Wilfred Zaha: https://www.sportbible.com/football/...ading-20210212

  8. #8

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
    An interesting contribution to the debate from Wilfred Zaha: https://www.sportbible.com/football/...ading-20210212
    Very investigating view and I can see where he's coming from.

    After a while the support would maybe become diluted and more patronising.

    Definitely think a refresh of how support is shown is needed.

  9. #9

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by UNDERHILL1927 View Post
    Very investigating view and I can see where he's coming from.

    After a while the support would maybe become diluted and more patronising.

    Definitely think a refresh of how support is shown is needed.

    It probably doesn't help that the BLM slogan is both an overarching sentiment as well as being attached to different and nebulous entities.

  10. #10

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
    It probably doesn't help that the BLM slogan is both an overarching sentiment as well as being attached to different and nebulous entities.
    It certainly divides opinion, get rid of BLM and concentrate on anti racism. That shouldn't give the veiled racists anywhere to go and they'll reveal their true sentiments pretty quickly.

  11. #11

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    The trouble is racism is not exclusive to black people, so taking the knee is too inclusive. There has to be a way to eradicate all racism.

  12. #12

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by Cleve van Leef View Post
    The trouble is racism is not exclusive to black people, so taking the knee is too inclusive. There has to be a way to eradicate all racism.
    True but recent events George Floyd etc highlighted, once again, the fight black people have to fight every day.

    It's a hard one and I've not got the answers, all I'll do is continue to fight against racism in all forms as vocally as I can.

  13. #13

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Great decision well, done the brave Bees , when you consider they in particular have developed and have a lot of good young black players .

    Think it all as to end , before crowds return .

    Iwonder if the 6 nation Rugby players divided response provide a catalyst to change ?

  14. #14

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    The problem with this gesture, is that after a while, it became the norm, an everyday thing, and so it lost some (if not all) of it's effect. Bringing it in October, for Black History Month (and coinciding with the Black Lives Matter protests) was a good move, and it certainly raised awareness of the issue, but dragging it on and on for months has devalued it, and reduced it almost to a chore.

    When you think that Brentford have a high percentage of black players, you'd think that they would have been the one of the last clubs to drop the gesture, but the fact they're the first suggests their own players maybe question it's value.

  15. #15

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
    An interesting contribution to the debate from Wilfred Zaha: https://www.sportbible.com/football/...ading-20210212
    The way it's happened, kneeling is seen as BLM.
    Making the point about equality and moving on:
    Before kick-off, each team to stand shoulder to shoulder with their teammates to show it doesn't(shouldn't) matter.
    Form a circle with alternating members of each team to to show it doesn't (shouldn't) matter.

    all post-covid of course

  16. #16
    Heisenberg
    Guest

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by life on mars View Post
    Great decision well, done the brave Bees , when you consider they in particular have developed and have a lot of good young black players .

    Think it all as to end , before crowds return .

    Iwonder if the 6 nation Rugby players divided response provide a catalyst to change ?
    In response to each of your sentences:

    Why?

    Why?

    And, finally, why?

  17. #17

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    I think if clubs and players feel at individual clubs that they are no longer going to take the knee then that's fine . However if a player of whatever colour wants to take the knee before a game from now until eternity I thinks that's up to him . I wouldn't boo a player taking the knee .

    I agree with it in principle but understand why people who are clearly not racists do not agree with it or did but now feel it has made its mark .

  18. #18

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    I think its probably lost it's meaning now and it will eventually become an empty gesture, if it isn't already.

    I've seen plenty of "Black Lives Matter....so (you're saying) white lives don't!?" etc over social media, so the BLM movement is just giving racist idiots something identifiable to attack.

    What I have never been able to fathom in a racism within football context is that a black player from an opposing team is racially abused, but the black players on your own team aren't? The fact that there isn't any consistency in racism demonstrates how ridiculous it is.

  19. #19

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by B. Oddie View Post
    I think its probably lost it's meaning now and it will eventually become an empty gesture, if it isn't already.

    I've seen plenty of "Black Lives Matter....so (you're saying) white lives don't!?" etc over social media, so the BLM movement is just giving racist idiots something identifiable to attack.

    What I have never been able to fathom in a racism within football context is that a black player from an opposing team is racially abused, but the black players on your own team aren't? The fact that there isn't any consistency in racism demonstrates how ridiculous it is.
    We were playing Stoke at home several years back , Stoke forward was time wasting some cretin from the bob bank shouts out you black see you next Tuesday, he gets plenty of stick from fellow fans

    But our side that day had several black players

    What would they have made of that nonsense

    These people are a combination of thick , ignorant and sly

  20. #20

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Soul '68 View Post
    Is this a good or a bad thing? Will other clubs follow on from this?

    Your views please gents. Let's have a good old fashioned debate without slagging any other posters political views off....

    Brentford will no longer take a knee before games because they feel the gesture against discrimination no longer has the required impact.

    Sunday's game against Barnsley will be the first in which they have not taken part in the pre-match kneel.

    In a statement, the Championship side's squad said racism was "the opposite of what we stand for".

    "There is a clear need to continue to push for an end to all discrimination," the statement added.

    "We believe we can use our time and energies to promote racial equality in other ways."

    They also reiterated support for the club's #BeeTogether inclusivity drive, and would continue to support clubs who did wish to take a knee at games.

    West London neighbours Queens Park Rangers had already stopped taking the knee as the club felt the effect was "diluted", although they did join Millwall in doing so in a fixture after players had been booed in the Lions' previous match.

    Middlesbrough stopped doing so for similar reasons as captain Britt Assombalonga said change was now required after the initial success of the gesture, while Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha said the knee gesture was "degrading" in a recent newspaper interview.

    The taking a knee gesture was inspired by NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who decided on the silent protest against racial oppression by kneeling during the national anthem.

    "Taking a knee is just one way our players have been showing their commitment," Brentford chief executive Jon Varney said.

    "We supported their desire to do it and we now support their desire to focus on other ways to show this commitment. We have been very clear in our ambition to be the most inclusive club in the country and our players want to and will play a big part on this journey."
    Players should be allowed to decide if they do it or not without the idiots accusing them of being racist if they decide against it.

  21. #21

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by bigjoe View Post
    The way it's happened, kneeling is seen as BLM.
    Making the point about equality and moving on:
    Before kick-off, each team to stand shoulder to shoulder with their teammates to show it doesn't(shouldn't) matter.
    Form a circle with alternating members of each team to to show it doesn't (shouldn't) matter.

    all post-covid of course
    Good idea.

  22. #22

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Intresting article sure to upset some:


    The rather talented Crystal Palace winger, Wilfried Zaha, has said that he finds being cajoled into taking a knee before matches “degrading”. He has also objected to wearing T-shirts supportive of Black Lives Matter. He is “fed up” of “charades that mean nothing”, believing that the kneeling business is simply a kind of virtue signalling which hides a lack of real action on the part of the authorities. He also refuses to put his name to BLM campaigns, believing it to be simply a “box-ticking” exercise.

    Zaha is not alone among players who feel uneasy about the whole knee business, apparently. The elder statesman Les Ferdinand, now director of football at Queens Park Rangers, has said that the impact of taking a knee was “diluted”*and QPR didn’t do it. (Until recently, when they started again. I don’t know why.)

    Lyle Taylor, the Nottingham Forest striker, is eloquent on the matter, stressing his opposition to racism in all its manifestations, but saying: “I do not support Black Lives Matter as an institution, as an organisation. I’d request anyone who blindly supports Black Lives Matter to have a look to what that organisation does and what it stands for, because it’s scandalous the fact that the whole world and the whole world’s media got behind Black Lives Matter. Standing behind Black Lives Matter, all the big institutions, all of them sitting there saying Black Lives Matter — not a good idea.”

    Zaha, despite his unease still takes the knee

    Every week, however, the Premier League clubs are seen kneeling. It is unclear if any degree of coercion is involved: Zaha, for example, still kneels down despite his complaint. That it has gone on so long is at least partly a consequence of fans being absent from matches and therefore unable to make their feelings heard.

    While there is near unanimous support for the English Football League’s “Kick It Out” campaign and a disgust at racism, there is no great love for BLM among fans. During that brief interregnum when small quantities of fans were allowed in to a minority of grounds (largely in the south of the country), there was booing from the stands when kneeling took place at Millwall, West Ham Unted and Colchester United. My lot, Millwall, no longer take a knee, but stand in solidarity with “Kick It Out” and were warmly applauded when they did so by fans.

    The kneeling has spread, meanwhile. The England rugby team now do it, or some of them do. Not Billy Vunipola, however. The Saracens forward, of Tongan ancestry, is a devout Christian and objects to the policies of BLM. “They were burning churches and Bibles — I can’t support that,” he said. “Even though I am a person of colour, I’m still more a person of, I guess, Jesus.”

    And you wonder: were the team asked to kneel? Was it an imperative or simply a matter of choice? In the event, six did not kneel before the Scotland defeat and none of their opponents did so. The Irish team did not kneel before their game against Wales and an opinion poll suggested that 85 per cent of their fellow countrymen thoroughly approved of this radical, er, inaction.

    Devout Rugby Player* Christian Billy Vunipola chose to stand

    Meanwhile, in cricket, the England players knelt in last July’s series against West Indies but did not do so against Australia. The Australians themselves didn’t kneel either but stood in a circle or something to express their solidarity with indigenous Australians. It has become something of a pantomime.

    So, you can see what both Zaha and Sir Les mean when they suggest that the message has become diluted, or is a “charade”. Perhaps more to the point it might also be seen as divisive, given that some players are doing it and others are not — while others are doing it and hating every second.

    The obsessed left would have you believe that those who don’t kneel are unsupportive of the fight against racism — but that is a difficult accusation to make of players who are black and have actually experienced that racism first hand.

    I would maintain that it is impossible to separate taking a knee from BLM, as supporters of the kneeling business now (rather late in the day) suggest we should. Nor was there any attempt to separate the two back in the summer when the Premier League was handing out BLM T-shirts and TV pundits were wearing BLM badges.

    Perhaps if Fifa and the Premier League had done even half as much research as Lyle Taylor into BLM the “charade” might never have started.

    Rod Liddle

  23. #23

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    After today they want to start thinking about taking the knee again

  24. #24

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by bigjoe View Post
    The way it's happened, kneeling is seen as BLM.
    Making the point about equality and moving on:
    Before kick-off, each team to stand shoulder to shoulder with their teammates to show it doesn't(shouldn't) matter.
    Form a circle with alternating members of each team to to show it doesn't (shouldn't) matter.

    all post-covid of course
    Good idea. And players of both sides should wear rainbow 'coloured' socks.

  25. #25

    Re: Brentford to stop taking a knee

    Quote Originally Posted by life on mars View Post
    Intresting article sure to upset some:


    The rather talented Crystal Palace winger, Wilfried Zaha, has said that he finds being cajoled into taking a knee before matches “degrading”. He has also objected to wearing T-shirts supportive of Black Lives Matter. He is “fed up” of “charades that mean nothing”, believing that the kneeling business is simply a kind of virtue signalling which hides a lack of real action on the part of the authorities. He also refuses to put his name to BLM campaigns, believing it to be simply a “box-ticking” exercise.

    Zaha is not alone among players who feel uneasy about the whole knee business, apparently. The elder statesman Les Ferdinand, now director of football at Queens Park Rangers, has said that the impact of taking a knee was “diluted”*and QPR didn’t do it. (Until recently, when they started again. I don’t know why.)

    Lyle Taylor, the Nottingham Forest striker, is eloquent on the matter, stressing his opposition to racism in all its manifestations, but saying: “I do not support Black Lives Matter as an institution, as an organisation. I’d request anyone who blindly supports Black Lives Matter to have a look to what that organisation does and what it stands for, because it’s scandalous the fact that the whole world and the whole world’s media got behind Black Lives Matter. Standing behind Black Lives Matter, all the big institutions, all of them sitting there saying Black Lives Matter — not a good idea.”

    Zaha, despite his unease still takes the knee

    Every week, however, the Premier League clubs are seen kneeling. It is unclear if any degree of coercion is involved: Zaha, for example, still kneels down despite his complaint. That it has gone on so long is at least partly a consequence of fans being absent from matches and therefore unable to make their feelings heard.

    While there is near unanimous support for the English Football League’s “Kick It Out” campaign and a disgust at racism, there is no great love for BLM among fans. During that brief interregnum when small quantities of fans were allowed in to a minority of grounds (largely in the south of the country), there was booing from the stands when kneeling took place at Millwall, West Ham Unted and Colchester United. My lot, Millwall, no longer take a knee, but stand in solidarity with “Kick It Out” and were warmly applauded when they did so by fans.

    The kneeling has spread, meanwhile. The England rugby team now do it, or some of them do. Not Billy Vunipola, however. The Saracens forward, of Tongan ancestry, is a devout Christian and objects to the policies of BLM. “They were burning churches and Bibles — I can’t support that,” he said. “Even though I am a person of colour, I’m still more a person of, I guess, Jesus.”

    And you wonder: were the team asked to kneel? Was it an imperative or simply a matter of choice? In the event, six did not kneel before the Scotland defeat and none of their opponents did so. The Irish team did not kneel before their game against Wales and an opinion poll suggested that 85 per cent of their fellow countrymen thoroughly approved of this radical, er, inaction.

    Devout Rugby Player* Christian Billy Vunipola chose to stand

    Meanwhile, in cricket, the England players knelt in last July’s series against West Indies but did not do so against Australia. The Australians themselves didn’t kneel either but stood in a circle or something to express their solidarity with indigenous Australians. It has become something of a pantomime.

    So, you can see what both Zaha and Sir Les mean when they suggest that the message has become diluted, or is a “charade”. Perhaps more to the point it might also be seen as divisive, given that some players are doing it and others are not — while others are doing it and hating every second.

    The obsessed left would have you believe that those who don’t kneel are unsupportive of the fight against racism — but that is a difficult accusation to make of players who are black and have actually experienced that racism first hand.

    I would maintain that it is impossible to separate taking a knee from BLM, as supporters of the kneeling business now (rather late in the day) suggest we should. Nor was there any attempt to separate the two back in the summer when the Premier League was handing out BLM T-shirts and TV pundits were wearing BLM badges.

    Perhaps if Fifa and the Premier League had done even half as much research as Lyle Taylor into BLM the “charade” might never have started.

    Rod Liddle
    Ron Adolf Liddle

    Hates the Welsh

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