Friday evening’s televised football match between Coventry City and Queens Park Rangers marked the first occasion, in a televised game, that the two teams did not take the knee prior to kick off since the Black Lives Matter protests swept the UK. This development has caused major controversy.
UNN’s Oliver Down understands that the home side (Coventry City) were more than happy to take the knee, but that it was QPR who did not take the knee in their first match last week and wanted to do the same last night.
The QPR boss Mark Warburton defended his club when he said to Sky Sports: “Well firstly, QPR does so much work as a community club that wants to fight any form of discrimination at any level, so we will not tolerate any form of discrimination. QPR is well recognised for such a stance, so to suggest anything other than that is ludicrous, let me get that point across. There’s no directive. It means so much to so many players – all of our players and staff – but there is no guidance from the authorities and we need to know. It can’t be ‘well if you want to do it’”.
The Coventry boss Mark Robins attempted to explain events and said: “I was told that QPR didn’t want to do it. They said they’d done it ten times in the past”.
The Sky Sports reporter David Craig stated on-air “It would seem QPR have decided internally after discussions between their staff and players, not to take the knee in their games at the start of this new season”. UNN’s Oliver Down will keep a keen eye on what develops across the weekends televised football and will bring you more as he gets it.
Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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