When England players took the knee in their warm-up match against Austria in order to show their protest against systemic racism, they were greeted with boos from their own fans.
Fans were allowed in that match against Austria for the first time since 2019 and their booing was met with confusion from the players and head coach Gareth Southgate. However, despite this adverse reaction, England players will continue to take the knee at Euro.
England midfielder Kalvin Phillips, who was on the bench said that he was left ‘confused and disappointed’ by their jeering.
“I think I was just happy that the boos got cancelled out by the fans cheering in the end, but I don’t think it’s a great situation, especially for us players,” said Phillips.
“The team spoke about it together and we came up with the conclusion that, regardless of what goes on around, we’re still going to participate in the kneeling and I think that’s a great idea.”
“In essence, people are booing their own team,” England manager Gareth Southgate said. “I don’t really understand that. If you don’t agree with the situation then perhaps you don’t have to applaud or you don’t have to do anything.
“But to boo your own team is a very strange response in my mind. I wanted to gauge that the players were happy to continue. I think there’s an acceptance that this gesture, if you like, is waning in its impact because we’ve been going now for a season.”
Southgate said that the fans need to put themselves in the shoes of the young players.
“I think those people (who boo) should put themselves in the shoes of those young players and how that must feel,” he said. “If that was their children, if they’re old enough to have children, how would they feel about their kids being in that sort of situation? The most important thing for our players is to know that we are totally united on it. We’re totally committed to supporting each other, supporting the team.
“We feel more than ever determined to take the knee through this tournament. We accept that there might be an adverse reaction and we are just going to ignore that and move forward.”
He also believes that this is the proper way of making a stand against racism and inequality.
“We feel that would be wrong and would be bowing to pressure from outside and we don’t think that’s appropriate,” he said. “We’re united on that as a full team.”
