Football fans 'totally wrong' for booing players who take a knee, says Harry Redknapp

Football fans 'totally wrong' for booing players who take a knee, says Harry Redknapp
harry taking knee
Charlie Bayliss

By Charlie Bayliss


Published: 15/06/2021

- 10:02

Updated: 15/06/2021

- 10:24

The former Tottenham, West Ham and Portsmouth manager said he 'hates it' when fans boo players, but admitted he didn't know how much longer the gesture could continue

Football fans who boo players taking the knee are "totally wrong", former Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp told GB News, but admitted he was unsure how much longer players should continue to kneel.

The legendary football manager told The Great British Breakfast: "I'm against all forms of racism, but I don't know how much longer we can keep going with it.


"I support anything that will eradicate racism. I hate it when there's people booing before the game. I think it's totally wrong that they do that.

"I was all for it (taking the knee) early on, and maybe it's time we look somewhere else."

The symbol of anti-racism solidarity gained attention in American football in 2016 as players protested against police brutality and racism in the US.

England's Raheem Sterling (left) and Kalvin Phillips taking a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
England's Raheem Sterling (left) and Kalvin Phillips taking a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Nick Potts

The act has since spread further and was adopted by footballers in the UK, partly to demonstrate that racism should not be tolerated in the sport.

But there have been incidents of a minority in the crowd booing players as they take the knee before games, including before England’s friendly matches against Austria and Romania last week.

A minority of England fans once again defied calls not to jeer the players as they took the knee before kick-off in the Euro 2020 clash with Croatia on Sunday.

Requests not to boo fell on some deaf ears, with an audible round of jeers from some of the expected 22,500 crowd at Wembley, although cheers from the vast majority soon drowned them out.

Redknapp praised England's 1-0 win over Croatia in their opening game of Euro 2020, and told GB News he hoped Scotland would qualify out the group after their 2-0 defeat against Czech Republic.

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