Celtic And Rangers Players REFUSE To Take The Knee Before Old Firm Clash

CELTIC And Rangers Players REFUSE To Take The Knee Before Sunday’s Old Firm Clash

Ahead of the Glasgow Old Firm clash on Sunday 21 at Celtic Park, both sets of players refused to ‘take the knee’, instead, standing tall, in solidarity to send a powerful anti-racism message after the events on Thursday evening that saw Rangers player Glen Kamara the target of alleged racist abuse in the Europa League match against Slavia Prague.

In a statement released by Kamara through a lawyer, he told how Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kudela covered his mouth and whispered in his ear, calling him ‘a f***ing monkey’, something which was backed up by his team-mate Bongani Zungu, but the Slavia player claims what he said was “you f***ing guy”, and also that Kamara had punched him in the tunnel after the match.

On Friday evening, sick images were posted on social media by Slavia Prague ultras showing them holding a banner that contained a racial slur towards Kamara, while Rangers’ Kemar Roofe also claims he was racially abused on Instagram.

Celtic and Rangers were not the only clubs in Scotland to refuse to take the knee, both Aberdeen and Kilmarnock made the same gesture of standing up and not taking the knee before their games.

Steven Gerrard, the Rangers manager, told Sky Sports, “We won’t take the knee. I spoke to both of my captains yesterday and they’ve made the collective decision that they are going to stand and stand together side by side. We will support that and follow suit as a staff as well”.

He added, “I wasn’t aware of the chat that the players have had amongst themselves but James Tavernier and Connor Goldson came to see me yesterday. I totally understand the decision they have made and totally back it 100 per cent. And we will do the same as staff to show them the support”.

Interim Celtic manager, John Kennedy also told Sky Sports, “We’ll be the same. It is important everyone comes together”, as reported by thesun.co.uk.

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