Why England won't take the knee vs Italy following racist abuse of Jess Carter

Independent

22-07-2025

Lucy Bronze said the Lionesses have decided against taking the knee before their Euro 2025 semi-final against Italy because there is a clear argument the anti-racism message is not 'as strong as it used to be' following the abuse of England defender Jess Carter.
Bronze revealed there is 'anger' and 'sadness' in the England camp after Carter spoke out against the 'vile' and 'abhorrent' social media abuse she has received while playing for England at Euro 2025.
The Lionesses have gone down on one knee, a symbolic anti-racism gesture, before games since the murder of George Floyd in 2020 but will stand before kick-off against Italy on Tuesday. In a statement, the Lionesses said 'we and football need to find another way to tackle racism' while the anti-discrimination group Kick It Out backed the players' decision and called on social media companies to do more to combat racist abuse.
'It was driven by the group - obviously certain individuals more than others,' Bronze explained. 'I think it was just the fact that we feel as a collective, is the message as strong as it used to be? Is the message really hitting hard? Because to us it feels like it's not if these things are still happening to our players in the biggest tournaments of their lives.
'It's about putting another statement out there to say, it's something that still is a problem, it's something that still needs to be put right. More needs to be done in football, more needs to be done in society. What that is right now as an individual, I don't exactly know.'
England manager Sarina Wiegman told the BBC that her players decided to stop taking the knee because its impact was 'not good enough' while defender Alex Greenwood said the anti-racism gesture has "lost its purpose".
Lionesses midfielder Georgia Stanway said: 'It's just to change it up. We felt like the knee was just a little bit repetitive, we felt like it's come to a point where the knee isn't doing what we wanted it to do, so now our decision is to stand and hopefully that will bring up more conversation, more change and hopefully get the topic [spoken about].'
NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the first player to take the knee when he kneeled during the Star Spangled Banner in protest in 2016. It become widespread in football after the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, during an arrest by police in 2020, with England's men's and women's teams taking the knee before the European Championships in 2021 and 2022.
While Premier League teams stopped taking the knee before every match in August 2022 – instead selecting specific fixtures and weekends to do so – Women's Super League teams have continued to perform the anti-racism gesture. England's decision to continue taking the knee before Euro 2025 was player-led and was communicated to Uefa, with support from the FA.
Bronze agreed that there 'has been change' since the Lionesses first took the knee but added: 'I think the problem is that as the game grows and everything grows, in football and in life, as much as there might be change, there are more outlets for abuse and racism as well.
'It's just not enough. I think that's the point. Not enough is being done. There are small changes being made, there's always small steps forward, but that's the problem. It's always a small step.
'And we don't want it to be small steps anymore. We want it to be 'this is happening, there's change, it's unacceptable', and there's no more small steps, because we get to the point of where it should be in the world, and especially in the world of footballers.
'It feels like there can be a place where we can control abuse online, especially racism online. Everything is monitored online, so it just doesn't make sense to us.'
The Football Association (FA) are in contact with the UK police while Bronze also praised Carter's bravery in speaking out against the abuse. The 27-year-old Carter, who has won 49 caps for her country and has played in all four of England's games at Euro 2025, said she would be taking a step back from social media for the rest of the tournament.
Bronze, 33, is appearing at her seventh major tournament for England said online abuse in women' football is getting 'worse and worse' as the game receives more attention. Bronze accepted that the growth of women's football since the Lionesses won Euro 2022 is a 'double-edged sword' as it also leaves players open to more abuse.
'I think it's something that I've spoken about before and a lot of other members of the team have spoken about the fact that the bigger the game gets, the bigger the noise becomes, the more fans there are but the more critics there are,' Bronze said. 'We're obviously open to critics, that's why we love the sport, but we're not open to abuse.
'And I think bigger the sport's got, it seems to be that more abuse has come as well and especially in women's football, the online abuse seems to be getting worse and worse.
'We see it more in the stadiums in men's football and online, but I think with women's football there seems to be a real target online. It's something that we're very aware of and I think with online platforms it's something that we can, we can make a change too. I think it's something in the women's game especially.
'I think with online platforms it's something that we can make a change too. I think it's something in the women's game especially. There is a way to make a change. There is a solution. I don't have the answer to that solution because I'm not head of the social media platform, but I'm sure that there is one.'
Bronze said she would be supporting the three other Black players in the England team - Lauren James, Michelle Agyemang and Khiara Kheating - after they were forced to see a team-mate suffer racist abuse while playing for the Lionesses at a major tournament.
'I think we all know that any player of colour that's played for England has probably gone through racist abuse,' Bronze said. 'That's a sad fact in this day and age. In terms of emotions yesterday, I think there was a lot of anger, to be honest, because we're having to go through this, because as players we want to stand up and we want to make a change.
'It's anger and sadness that our teammates have gone through this. We don't want it to happen. We want to be focused on the football. We want to be making changes. We want Jess and anybody else who puts on an England shirt to be brave, to be happy when they play for England, to have the fans support through it all. I think there was a lot of sadness, but definitely a lot of anger as well.'
A statement from Kick It Out said: 'We send our support to Jess Carter and back her decision to look after her own well-being. It shouldn't come to a point where players feel the need to take this action; they should feel safe while doing their jobs. They should not be exposed to this sickening behaviour, and those responsible should face the strongest possible consequences.
'But responsibility also lies with social media companies. We support players in whatever actions they choose to take to signify their support in the fight against racism, but the focus should be on the reason behind those actions rather than the actions themselves.
'Social media companies have failed to prevent exposure to this toxicity, and football must continue to use its collective power to hold them to account. We have been working with the government and the regulator, but we know that more urgency is needed from everyone involved.'