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Glasgow Times
5 minutes ago
- Sport
- Glasgow Times
Why England won't be taking the knee in Euros semi-final
The Lionesses, who play Italy on Tuesday, July 22, said that taking the knee as an anti-racism gesture was "not good enough". It comes after defender Jess Carter shared that she had been targeted by racist abuse across social media during the tournament. In a statement shared to her account on Sunday, July 20, Carter said she would be 'taking a step back' from social media, while Football Association CEO Mark Bullingham confirmed his organisation has involved UK police. Following Carter's statement, the England team confirmed they would not be taking the knee. Why is England not taking the knee in the Euros semi-finals against Italy? Confirming that the Lionesses would be standing, midfielder Georgia Stanway told BBC Sport: "We feel like it has gone past that [taking the knee] now. "We feel it is still happening even when we are taking the knee. We have decided that we will stand and we will not do that. "We think that is a way of making change in itself because we want to get people talking, we want to tell people that what is being done isn't enough." @bbcsport 'We want to tell people that what is being done isn't enough' Georgia Stanway explains why England players won't be taking the knee before matches. ♬ original sound - BBC Sport England manager, Sarina Wiegman, added: "Taking the knee, that's not enough. We have done that for a while. "The impact is not good enough, it's not as big as we think. "When there is this form of racism we felt we have to do something else, something different, so that's why we are not taking the knee." Italy have shared that they support England's gesture but have not confirmed if they will join in the movement. Recommended Reading How to watch the Lionesses play against Italy Those hoping to watch the game from the comfort of their own homes are in luck. The match will be broadcast and streamed live on ITV1 and online via ITVX. All users need to do is tune in from 8pm to see the game or from 7pm to watch the full build-up. Italy and England will clash in the semi-finals of the 2025 Women's Euros on Tuesday, July 22.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Taking the knee had a value - but now it's become a self-affirming moment without evidence of stopping hate: IAN HERBERT on why it's time to listen to the Lionesses
Permit me to say that given the choice between an hour's conversation with Nigel Farage or Georgia Stanway, I would opt for the 26-year-old midfielder of Bayern Munich and England, every day of the week. The last 48 hours' debate surrounding the national team's decision not to take the knee provides more than adequate reasoning. The despicable racist abuse directed at Stanway's teammate Jess Carter by low-life attention seekers from the social media swamp formed the backdrop to the team's decision. Farage was too busy making cynical political capital from this news - castigating the mere existence of the 'crazy gesture' - to extend the mildest sympathy to a besieged young woman. It was Stanway, in the stadium where England will play a European Championships semi-final against Italy on Tuesday night, who gave eloquent voice to the fact that taking the knee seems pointless when the intellectually challenged cretins are typing out their race hate. 'It's not doing what we want it to do,' she said. 'We need more change.' She is right. Taking the knee had a value, once. It raised awareness. It triggered discussion. It brought talk about racism, and the wider abuse which rains down on those who play sport, out into the light. It gave players the confidence to contribute to a discussion, call out the abuse, describe their experience. Ten years ago, this was unknown in sport. Football, with its tedious reverse snobbery, poured scorn on those who even ventured into such territory. No longer. But how many of today's players can now actually state the significance - the actual derivation - of the gesture? It was 2016 when Colin Kaepernick decided to kneel during the playing of the US national anthem before an NFL pre-season game, in protest against a string of police killings of unarmed black citizens in that country. The younger members of the England squad were still primary school pupils at the time. A gesture only impacts for as long as it provokes thought, strikes a chord, makes people sit up and look. When it becomes routine, an incidental part of the pre-match ritual, it loses that value and becomes part of the lethargy and complacency which it was designed to kick against in the first place. This is what taking the knee has become. A self-affirming moment, designed to make us all feel a little better about a problem which remains a stain on sport and the wider public sphere. Some have depicted the gesture as Marxist - a form of expression for a malign movement that wanted to defund the police - and brought it into our culture wars. Hence Farage's salivation this week over the England team's decision. Ever the eye for the opportunity. For me, it has been none of those things and propagators of such theories would do well to examine the facts around the story of Kaepernick on the San Francisco 49ers Levi's Field on a September afternoon nine years ago. He knelt, rather than sat, incidentally, in an attempt to maintain respect for America's military as that anthem played. A little basic research would certainly have helped the former Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who in attacking the gesture once said he thought it had been taken from 'Game of Thrones.' Stanway and her teammates have no particular notion as to what gesture, if any, might follow in the place of the one they are passing up. And neither is it up to them to find one. Sport's most powerful challenge to the haters in recent years has come from individual players. Who could forget Marcus Rashford's 400-word Instagram post after the penalty miss in the 2021 European Championship final had brought the same hate on him, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho that Carter is experiencing now. 'I will never apologise for who I am,' Rashford declared in that powerful assertion of identity and self. We can only hope that there will be many more like him out there because there is no material evidence that we are driving out the hate which the more optimistic felt that taking the knee was consigning to the past. 'It's really sad that we have to be occupied by this,' said Stanway's manager Sarina Wiegman, who took the wider view of her defender's experience. 'It is ridiculous and disgusting what is happening. And that goes beyond football.'
The Guardian
7 hours ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
‘Ready to perform and compete': Wiegman praises Carter before Italy semi-final
Sarina Wiegman has said Jess Carter is 'ready to perform and compete' in England's semi-final against Italy on Tuesday night, praising the defender's strength of character in the face of racist abuse received during Euro 2025. Wiegman is expected to keep faith with Carter after a below-par performance against Sweden in the previous round – one of many in the team that night – but the head coach said they had discussed the possibility of her not playing. 'Of course we had conversations,' Wiegman said. 'Although it is a hard situation, Jess is a very strong person and she wants to move on, too. She also felt – as we did – that we had to address this. You can't just let it go, so we did not. 'Then we know that there's a match going on: we want to perform, we're ready to perform, she's ready to perform and compete, and that says a lot about her and the team.' The midfielder Georgia Stanway echoed Wiegman's sentiments and took aim at those who sent the racist messages on social media. 'The people that are saying these things and doing things like this are not fans,' Stanway said. 'When we pull on that shirt we are doing it for the people we stand next to, for our families and the actual people who are there watching the games and enjoying the games. I say it with power because I really believe in that, we believe in that: the people who are like that don't deserve to be called fans.' Italy 1-5 England, 27 Feb 2024, Algeciras The Lionesses started preparations for the Euro 2025 qualifiers perfectly, with a dominant win over Italy in south-west Spain. Lotte Wubben-Moy gave England the lead inside the first minute and Lauren Hemp scored twice to put England 3-0 ahead after 34 minutes. Le Azzurre got one back just before half-time through Michela Cambiaghi, but England cemented their dominance with second-half goals from Ella Toone and Rachel Daly to round off an impressive performance. England 2-1 Italy, 19 Feb 2023, Coventry England made it two out of two wins in the Arnold Clark Cup, thanks to two Daly headers either side of Sofia Cantore's 62nd-minute equaliser. Italy could not contain Daly, who in addition to her goals, hit the crossbar just before half-time. The Lionesses broke the attendance record for a sporting event at the CBS Arena, drawing a crowd of 32,128. England 1-1 Italy, 7 April 2017, Stoke England were held to a frustrating draw in their penultimate home match before Euro 2017. Italy scored with their only attempt on goal, which came from Valentina Cernoia minutes after Jodie Taylor opened the scoring in the 70th minute. The Lionesses dominated Mark Sampson's 50th match in charge, with a whopping 23 shots to Italy's six. Eze Obasi The decision to tackle the abuse of Carter as a collective, with the team releasing a joint statement shortly after Carter released her own, has further united them. Stanway said: 'If anything it has probably brought us closer together as a team. There's some things that we will never be able to understand and this is one of those. 'We need to cut it out of society and football. Of course we don't know the steps that it takes in order for that to happen, but right now all we can do is show our support, our togetherness, and we can be united in what we want to make sure is right.' England will not be taking the knee in protest at racist abuse and discrimination because it is not 'doing what we want it to do' any more, Stanway said. She hopes standing will 'bring up more conversation and more change'. Italy's head coach, Andrea Soncin, expressed his team's support for Carter before the fixture in Geneva. 'There is the greatest of solidarity with her and towards anyone suffering violence and abuse,' he said. 'It should not be tolerated. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion 'We have a responsibility with the position we are in to send the right messages. We need to give educational messages, including to children. It is a cultural campaign, a cultural battle.' The Juventus defender Cecilia Salvai added her backing for Carter, saying: 'I hope she can detach from this tomorrow.' In 2021 Juventus were accused of racism after posting a picture of Salvai in which she was using her fingers to narrow her eyes while wearing a red training cone on her head. The club quickly apologised and withdrew the image, saying it was not meant to have 'racial overtones'. Salvai said Italy's players would discuss possible supportive gestures for Carter on Tuesday. 'We will talk and discuss tonight,' she said. 'We are open and willing to do anything to send a strong message.' Wiegman said Leah Williamson had recovered from the injury which forced her off against Sweden, and warned England against underestimating Italy. 'It would be really disrespectful to think we are the favourites,' she said. 'They made the semi-final just like we did and that's very impressive for any team. Complacency is the biggest mistake you could make. You have seen how they have played … we have to be at our very best to win.'
The Independent
a day ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Lionesses have the power to rise to their biggest moment of Euro 2025
Around the England camp, there's a different air. The squad insist they are fully focused on Tuesday's Euro 2025 semi-final against Italy, but it's not quite a case of drawing a line under the week's big story, in the way that often happens in such situations. Certainly for games of this magnitude. By contrast, many of the players want to use the occasion to draw attention to the stand they're trying to make. They wanted to 'send a message to the world,' in the words of Sarina Wiegman. The pre-match press conference in Geneva was dominated by discussion of Jess Carter, and her decision to take a 'step back' from social media after suffering racist abuse. Some of the players remain infuriated by it all. Wiegman and Georgia Stanway were fully composed by the time it came to talk, but this wasn't a case of now setting it all aside. Stanway explained the rationale behind no longer taking the knee head on, and even addressed some critical discussion that stance has received from some quarters. 'We felt like the knee was just a little bit repetitive,' Stanway said. 'We felt like it's come to a point where the knee isn't doing what we wanted it to do.' Wiegman of course backed up her midfielder, stating: 'It's really sad we have to discuss this. It goes beyond football.' That has generally been true of her team. In what is obviously a transformative era for women's football, England have been one of the pioneering sides in marrying football success with social impact. This match might even be a defining occasion in that regard, as England stand on the brink of a third successive final at a Euros or World Cup, and Wiegman herself looks to her fifth. There is of course an awkward but inevitable question from all that, that does feel a little incongruous given the seriousness of the matter the players are discussing. Football does have to be played, after all. So, is there any danger of distraction? The feeling from the camp is that there's no chance of that. They actually look likelier to channel this kind of energy. 'If anything, it's brought us together as a team,' Stanway said. 'Right now, all we can do is show our support, our togetherness.' This was a theme that Lucy Bronze had driven the previous day. 'We all support Jess, Jess supports the team,' Bronze said. 'No matter what we're all going through, we're all able to do that and I think we've shown that whether it's something going on at home, deaths of parents, to racism, to homophobia, this team stands up and speaks out. 'We all support each other through it all, and whilst we're doing that we're still successful as a football team and I think that's what gives us this platform to be able to speak out and to push even more.' Stanway even had a phrase for it: 'The power of the Lionesses.' That's where there is a different air, and another shift. Stanway admitted that this tournament has been 'a rollercoaster'. It's not just gone up and down, however, but also back and forth. England have looked assured in one moment, and uncertain the next. It just hasn't been convincing in terms of performance. They've only played well against inferior opposition, in the Netherlands and Wales. Against France and Sweden, they didn't just toil. A potential blueprint to beat England was even more evident. These are problems that have been growing for a while, going back to before the 2023 World Cup. England struggle to play when Keira Walsh is pressed, and struggle to defend when facing proper pace and livewire attacks. Worse, Wiegman hasn't yet figured out any solutions to this, other than in-game adaptations that change the momentum of matches rather than actually address the tactics. Hence the importance of Chloe Kelly and Michelle Agyemang against Sweden. Wiegman admitted their impact adds to her 'headaches', but that also points to the logic of maybe keeping them on the bench. They can then be unleashed. On that other major selection story, Leah Williamson trained on the eve of the match after recovering from an ankle injury, and wants to play. Italy, it must be acknowledged, don't have anywhere near the quality of France or Sweden. Unlike those sides, however, they are here, in the semi-finals. Part of that might be a kind draw, but it's also because of their own resolve, as well as a tactical canniness under manager Andrea Soncin. That was witnessed in the trouble they gave Spain in that crucial final group game. It might have been a Spain with six changes, but one of those Aitana Bonmati, and Italy went in needing a result. Events changed that but they also saw Italy become the only side to actually take the lead against Spain. Soncin spoke after that about how he's enjoying the greatest days of his life, reflecting the emotional momentum that has built around this team. You only have to look at the form of Cristiana Girelli, who struck twice in that quarter-final against Norway. They also have a social momentum all of their own, since they're on the brink of a final just three years after being permitted to turn professional. If that fosters the sense of one of those teams that has done superbly to get this far and is unlikely to have more, it goes without saying that Wiegman won't let England think like that. 'We might be favourites,' the manager said, with a considerable 'but…' 'I think it would be disrespectful to Italy to think we are favourites.' The team are instead thinking of bigger things as well as how they can rise above it all. That is most true of Carter. 'She's ready to perform,' Wiegman said. 'We're ready to perform.' England are ready for more, in so many senses.
Reuters
a day ago
- Sport
- Reuters
Supporting Carter amid racist abuse has brought England closer, Stanway says
GENEVA, July 21 (Reuters) - England midfielder Georgia Stanway said supporting teammate Jess Carter amid the racist abuse she has received has strengthened the bond between the players ahead of their Euro 2025 semi-final against Italy on Tuesday in Geneva. Defending champions England squeaked through to the semis after a penalty shootout on Thursday against Sweden, but the past two days have been dominated by talk about racism in football after Carter, who is Black, revealed she has been the target of abuse since the tournament began. "If anything, it's brought us together as a team," Stanway told a press conference on Monday. "We need to cut it out of society. We need to cut it out of football. Right now, all we can do is show our support and our togetherness." Asked whether she would consider not playing Carter on Tuesday, England coach Sarina Wiegman said the 27-year-old defender is ready to perform and compete. "That says a lot about her and the team," Wiegman said. "We have had a conversation. It's a hard situation but Jess is a very strong person, she wants to move on too, but she and we felt we had to address this, we can't let it go." There was concern around the fitness of captain Leah Williamson after she limped off with an ankle injury against Sweden, but the defender trained on Monday. "She really wants to play, she did everything to recover as good as possible, and she has, she trained today, and if she recovers well she is available tomorrow," Wiegman said. Wiegman denied a suggestion that England, who are making their sixth semi-final appearance of a major tournament, are the favourites. "I think it would be really disrespectful to Italy to think we are the favourites. They made the semi-final like we did, it's impressive for any team to make the semis," said Wiegman, who has won the past two European championships, as coach of the Netherlands in 2017 and in 2022 with England. "Complacency is the biggest mistake any team could make," she added. "We've seen how they've played. I don't think there's any way we could think we are the favourite. We have to be at our very best to win the game." While England have traditionally taken the knee before kickoff as a symbolic gesture against racism, they have made the decision to remain standing on Tuesday. "It's just to change it up," Stanway said. "We felt like the knee was just a little bit repetitive. It comes 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."
