‘Taking the Knee’ Seen as ‘Window Dressing’by Soccer Fans

Almost two-thirds of English soccer fans now oppose players taking the knee before matches, seeing the anti-racism gesture as superficial, a paper co-authored by an academic from the University of South Australia (UniSA) has found.
Starting in the wake of George Floyd’s killing in 2020 and the subsequent reignition of the Black Lives Matter movement, dropping to one knee before games has not translated into any real-world action by football clubs to tackle racism, a survey of more than 1,000 soccer fans has shown.
The survey, conducted by British academics from Teesside and Aston universities, as well as UniSA senior lecturer in Sport and Management, Jamie Cleland, invited fans to share their views on the ritual, with 65 percent opposing the gesture and questioning its actual effectiveness in fighting racism. It was also seen as “window dressing” by clubs to cover up football’s failure to combat racism in any meaningful way….