Players clarify their position on taking the knee before games
- Huddersfield Town players issue a statement
- Team will no longer take the knee before games
- Club supports the decision of the players
Ahead of the First Team’s opening pre-season friendly against Harrogate Town on Saturday, the players have issued the following statement:
“We have had a discussion as a group and made the decision that we will stop taking the knee ahead of our matches, beginning with this Saturday’s friendly against Harrogate Town.
“We want to be very clear – we are still 100% supportive of the message that discrimination, on any grounds, has absolutely no place in society or in football. That message will not change.
“Like everyone at the Club, we are fully supportive of every campaign and initiative that aims to tackle discrimination, such as ‘Kick It Out’ and ‘Football v Homophobia’ to name just two. However, it’s clear to us that discrimination is still a real problem in football and society; you can see that from some of the inexcusable messages that footballers across England have received on social media last season.
“That’s why we felt we had to highlight that more should be done, and last season we took the knee ahead of every game to show our solidarity towards this.
“However, we no longer feel that taking the knee is having the desired impact. We spoke with our Chairman Phil Hodgkinson, Chief Executive, Mark Devlin, and Head of Football Operations, Leigh Bromby, late last week to discuss this decision and make it clear that we have a strong desire to continue to fight discrimination via the Club’s ‘Terriers Together’ campaign. We’ll continue those discussions and we will work together to push towards this important goal.”
Operations Director, and Board lead for the Club’s ‘Terriers Together’ initiative Ann Hough added:
“As a Club, we fully support the decision that has been taken by the players, just as we supported their decision to take the knee last season.
“Taking the knee is just one way that our players have supported the fight against discrimination, and we will now work together on all the other ways we can show this commitment.
“Our journey to the Intermediate Level of the Premier League’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Standard – and embarking on the advanced level – is indicative of how important we view this area as a Club, and our fight to eliminate discrimination from football will continue at pace, with the full support of the players, every staff member and our fantastic supporters.”
