Paul
Joseph Johnson
The Croatian national football team says its
players will refuse to ‘take a knee’ before their Euro 2020 games because the
stunt is an explicitly political gesture which would violate UEFA rules.
The argument made in the UK for England
players taking the knee, despite being booed for it by their own fans, is that
the gesture is merely a symbolic anti-racism stance and doesn’t equate to any
form of political messaging.
However, the gesture only started being
performed in the UK after the death of George Floyd last year and is
inextricably linked with Black Lives Matter, a divisive, violent, extremist
far-left political movement.
With Croatia set to play England at
Wembley next week, the Croatian Federation said that its players would not be
taking a knee before the match and will instead remain standing.
“At a press conference before the
European Championships, Croatian national team spokesman Tomislav Pacak did not
want to answer a question related to kneeling, but Croatian journalists said
the decision was made by the association because kneeling is not part of the
UEFA protocol and the UEFA is explicitly opposed to any politically motivated
manifestations in sport,” reports Remix.
The Hungarian national team will also
remain standing for the same reason, with the Hungarian Football Association
explaining in a statement, “The rules of UEFA and FIFA do not allow
politicization on the pitch and in the stadium, which the MLSZ not only accepts
but agrees with. The national team will not express its condemnation of any
form of hatred by not kneeling before the matches.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban
went even further, asserting that the display was a “provocation” when
performed in Budapest by Ireland players and is only being performed in some
European countries due to their historical guilt over slavery.
Despite the fact that England will
flagrantly violate UEFA’s rules on political gestures multiple times by taking
the knee, don’t expect them to face any official sanctions.
As we document in the video below, fans
who boo players taking the knee have been denounced as racists despite their
reason for doing so being exclusively to express opposition to Black Lives
Matter’s extremism, iconoclasm and demented political goals.
Link at Gates of Vienna
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