Yahoo Finance Romelu Lukaku is latest player to question impact of taking the knee
Romelu Lukaku has joined his Chelsea team-mate Marcos Alonso in questioning the impact that taking the knee is still having in the fight against racism.
The Chelsea striker, who has still been taking the knee before games, has also called on Premier League captains to come together in a bid to tackle online abuse.
Alonso this week confirmed that he has stopped taking the knee because he believes it is “losing a bit of strength”. Asked in an interview with CNN about the effectiveness of the gesture, Lukaku said: “I think we can take stronger positions, basically. Yeah, we are taking the knee, but in the end, everybody's clapping but... sometimes after the game, you see another insult.”
Premier League clubs and players last season staged a social media blackout over online racism and abuse, and Lukaku believes the players need to unify again to take on companies such as Instagram and Twitter.
“The captains of every team, and four or five players, like the big personalities of every team, should have a meeting with the CEOs of Instagram and governments and the FA and the PFA, and we should just sit around the table and have a big meeting about it,” said Lukaku.
“How we can attack it straight away, not only from the men's game, but also from the women's game. I think just all of us together and just have a big meeting and have a conference and just talk about stuff that needs to be addressed to protect the players, but also to protect fans and younger players that want to become professional footballers.
“If you want to stop something, you can really do it. We, as players, we can say 'Yeah, we can boycott social media,' but I think it's those companies that have to come and talk to the teams, or to the governments, or to the players themselves and find a way how to stop it because I really think they can.
“I have to fight, because I'm not fighting only for myself. I'm fighting for my son, for my future kids, for my brother, for all of the other players and their kids, you know, for everybody. At the end of the day, football should be an enjoyable game… You cannot kill the game by discrimination. That should never happen. Football is joy, it's happiness and it shouldn't be a place where you feel unsafe because of the opinion from some uneducated people.”
Alonso did not consult Lukaku or his Chelsea team-mates over his decision to stop taking the knee and head coach Thomas Tuchel confirmed that he has not discussed the matter with his squad.
But Lukaku insisted Chelsea are together in their anti-racism stance, saying: “I think right now, from the owner to us, the players, we as a club... We are really putting out a statement and taking a position that stuff like that should not be tolerated.
“Because, in our team, we have a lot of players that represent the club from different nationalities, different skin colours, different religions, also the women's team where it's the same thing.
“So, I think us as a club, I think we should be an example for the other teams and basically say that, you know, whenever a form of discrimination is happening, that the club is taking a strong position and prosecuting everything that's happening in the stands.”
