England coach Gareth Southgate said some fans do not understand the message behind players taking a knee before matches after the gesture was booed ahead of Wednesday's 1-0 friendly win over Austria.
Around 7,000 fans were at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium for the Euro 2020 warm-up and jeers could be heard from sections of the crowd before they were drowned out by applause from other supporters.
Players have been taking a knee before kickoff in support of the anti-racism “Black Lives Matter” movement but Southgate said some fans view it as a "political stand" they do not agree with.
“I did hear it,” Southgate said. “It’s not something on behalf of our Black players I wanted to hear because it feels as though it’s a criticism of them. I think we have got a situation where some people seem to think it’s a political stand that they don’t agree with. That’s not the reason the players are doing it. We’re supporting each other. I was pleased that was drowned out by the majority of the crowd.
“We can’t deny the fact that it happened. I think the most important thing for our players to know is all their teammates and all the staff are very supportive. I think the majority of people understand it. I think some people aren’t quite understanding the message. I suppose we’re seeing that across a number of football grounds at the moment.”
"I'm quite taken aback as to how loud that was" - @bbcjohnmurray
Listen to the moment some fans inside the Riverside booed England and Austria players taking the knee.⚽ https://t.co/5Du5Yilmm1#ENGAUT #bbcfootball pic.twitter.com/FbeFU4Bm0I
— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) June 2, 2021
Midfielder Jack Grealish said none of the players were happy about it.
"I think that will get talked about in the next few days," he told Sky Sports. "It's a thing we don't want in football in general and especially in our games."
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
