Raheem Sterling: "Yes, there have been times that we've sat down and said, 'Is the message still powerful?', and we've said yes and as a group and as a collective we've tried to keep that going"
Wednesday 29 December 2021 10:15, UK
Raheem Sterling and Gareth Southgate believe the England team sent a "powerful" and "united" message by taking a knee during Euro 2020 and think the gesture can continue to be meaningful in the fight against racism.
Some criticism was directed towards the England squad during the tournament because of Southgate and his players' decision to kneel prior to games on their run to the final in what some perceived to be a 'political' gesture.
England players were booed as they knelt before their Euro 2020 warm-up friendly against Austria. After the match, Southgate indicated his players were making a stand against racism and not performing a political gesture. There were, however, further jeers from sections of supporters before the rest of England's games in June and July.
In light of the online abuse aimed at Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho following their penalty misses in the Euro 2020 final, Sterling believes it is important that taking a knee continues to constitute a powerful symbol of anti-racism for the England team and ensures that awareness continues to be raised over the issue of discrimination.
Sterling told BBC Radio 4: "How us as a team took a stance, I think the big question was, 'are we going to continue doing it through the Euros?'.
"And I think a lot of the time when the racism comes up or something has happened, a lot of the time in football and in the majority of society, we tend to address it for that period, for that five days or that week and then we brush it under the carpet and things are all fine now.
"When the next scenario happens that's when we go again. But us as a country, players that've been in those scenarios face some of that racist abuse.
"On a whole, we just want to keep highlighting that. Yes, there have been times that we've sat down and said, 'Is the message still powerful?', and we've said yes and as a group and as a collective we've tried to keep that going."
Southgate added: "At the very least, this had to be a team where we were united on how we saw it and we could send a message to young kids watching that I think the lads maybe didn't realise how powerful that would be going into a tournament because they wanted to concentrate on the football.
"They want to be judged primarily on the football but what Raheem has done, in this space, in particular. I remember you put the two articles out on how (Tosin) Adarabioyo had been reported on as a young player and a similar sort of story with Phil (Foden), and the difference, and it was clear the way those things had been reported.
"So there were a lot of things that happened over the last few years including the incident with George Floyd which I think led, it educated me a lot and I wanted to represent the players in the best way I could."
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