Manchester City defender Marc Guehi did not take the knee before his side's Premier League home game against Ipswich on Saturday, with the fixture falling in the first of two rounds dedicated to the competition's "No Room For Racism" campaign.
Speaking on Monday at a news conference ahead of City's Champions League match against AEK Athens, Guehi said it was "great" that the Premier League's anti-racism campaign was continuing, but added that he wants to see more done in football's fight against racism. "Whether more can be done -- more can always be done," he said. "We have to see how we can move the campaign along."
He went on to say he does not see racism as solely a football problem. "I don't think it's necessarily a football issue. I think it's a wider societal issue and football is that beacon of hope to try to get the message out. But whether more can be done, we will try, hopefully with the PFA (English soccer's players union), with the league."
Asked whether taking the knee had lost its meaning, Guehi replied: "Maybe. I haven't been taking the knee for a while now, to be honest. I'd always clap, just because of what that actually signifies." He did not elaborate further on his reasons for not taking the knee, and it was not the first time he had declined to perform the gesture, which was introduced in June 2020 in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign.
Since the start of the 2022-23 season, the Premier League has not required players to take the knee before every match, instead inviting them to do so on certain occasions each season.
Leeds striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin also did not perform the gesture over the weekend, standing while his teammates and Manchester United's players knelt before the game. Calvert-Lewin went on to score in a 1-1 draw. Leeds manager Daniel Farke said afterwards: "Dom is more or less like, 'No, I don't go down. I show my respect by standing up, more or less.' I think each individual is different and shows respect for this campaign in a different way."
Guehi is not the first player to step away from the gesture. In 2021, then-Crystal Palace player Wilfried Zaha said he would no longer take the knee, telling the FT Business of Football conference, as quoted by The Guardian, that he found the gesture degrading and that its meaning had become something players simply did without enough behind it.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the current "No Room For Racism" initiative, which runs during the UK's Black History Month, aims to use "the reach of our players to send an important message: we are united in the fight against racism."
