No Room For Racism

Matip: Taking the knee sends important message

21 Oct 2021

Liverpool defender chats with PL Kicks participants about equality, discrimination and tackling racism

As part of our ongoing No Room For Racism initiative, we are running a series of Youth Voices films, where young people on Premier League community and academy programmes chat with first-team players about discrimination, equality and allyship.

Liverpool

At the start of this season, players from all 20 Premier League clubs confirmed that they will continue to take the knee ahead of matches to highlight their opposition to racism.

And Liverpool defender Joel Matip believes the action is an important way of raising the issue of discrimination.

"It is a sign of awareness that it's still a big problem with racism," he said in the video above.

"It's to make the people see, 'Yeah, there's still a problem. We are not finished. It's still there and we have to take care of it.' "

Matip was speaking with four Liverpool FC Foundation participants from the Premier League Kicks programme, who are now students at the Fowler Academy, and they believe that taking the knee has resonated with fans as well as the wider society.

"It shows signs of togetherness between the Premier League players," said Ishmael.

"So if one player is getting discriminated, we're all going to stand with that player. We don't encourage this type of discrimination or racism towards any player around the world."

The group also discussed their own experiences of racism, the ways of dealing with discrimination as well as the importance of diversity in sport and society.

Their discussion will form part of the extensive library of free resources and teaching materials available via Premier League Primary Stars, which explore heritage, discrimination and allyship.

See: Premier League Primary Stars - No Room For Racism