Players don Black Lives Matters shirts for English Premier League restart

Players’ names replaced by ‘Black Lives Matters’ on shirts as English Premier League makes a statement on its return.

Sheffield United defender Enda Stevens kneels during a minute’s silence prior to his team’s English Premier League match against Aston Villa at Villa Park in Birmingham. Picture: AFP

Premier League football restarted for the first time in three months with a bold statement: all players and match officials in the restart match took the knee at Villa Park

Wearing shirts saying “Black Lives Matter” in place of their names, the Aston Villa and Sheffield United players wanted to show support for the movement after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. When they went onto the pitch — to a hollow atmosphere devoid of the 40,000 usual fans — they made their starting formations, but went down on to their knee when the whistle blew in a pre-organised statement.

Earlier, all players had stood for a minute of respect for the 41,000 people who have died of coronavirus across the country in the past 100 days. With only a few club officials and limited media allowed into the stands, there was an eerie silence.

Aston Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz. Picture: AFP

The Premier League said the Black Lives Matter wording would feature on all player shirts for the first 12 matches, with a sleeve patch for the rest of the season. There is also a National Health Service badge on player shirts.

The Premier League’s strong support for the Black Lives Matter movement has dominated the return of football across the country and it could pitch it against the world authority FIFA, which strictly enforces that equipment “must not have any political, religious, or personal slogans, statements or images”.

But the Premier League agreed to the approaches by Watford captain Wes Morgan and Leicester City captain Troy Deeney to be on the “right side of history”.

In 2016, FIFA fined the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for wearing poppies for Remembrance Day — a stance they later overturned.

The Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola frequently courts controversy for wearing a yellow ribbon signifying his support for Catalan independence.

Players observe a minute’ silence before the English Premier League football match between Aston Villa and Sheffield United at Villa Park in Birmingham. Picture: AFP

Tory MP Ben Bradley told the Nottinghamshire Post that the Premier League was making a political statement and questioned why it would support a movement that wanted to dismantle capitalism and defund the police.

He said the Premier League should support the established anti-racism organisation Kick It Out.

“Black Lives Matter are setting the good work that great campaigns like ‘Show Racism The Red Card’ have done back by decades,” Mr Bradley said.

“Has [the Premier League] read the small print of what it’s backing? I assume this gesture is entirely well meant, but in practice it is actually supporting a movement that wants to defund the police. The same police officers that keep fans safe at Premier League games. This is not clever.”

But former Crystal Palace striker Clinton Morrison told BBC Radio 5 Live that players taking the knee “was special, that touched my heart. I didn’t expect that. You could see it was planned”.

Aston Villa’s English midfielder Jack Grealish runs with the ball as empty stands are seen in the background at Villa Park during the English Premier League football match against Sheffield United. Picture: AFP

Former England midfielder Jermaine Jenas had earlier told the radio station: “It’s brilliant that all the clubs and the players have come together and said that this is what they want.

“I’m all for it in terms of the representation and for each club and player to be doing it. But I think the question on most people’s lips is: what next?

“What about the week after? Does it just fade out and it’s ‘okay, we did our little bit and it’s gone now’. Or are we actually going to see some real change within our game, our own house?”

Football players were criticised by the Health secretary Matt Hancock early in the pandemic, where he called on them “to take a pay cut and play their part”. This week, the battle of number 10s was won by the Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford and not prime minister Boris Johnson, when the footballer’s lobbying to have free school meals continue for poor students during the long summer break became government policy.

Controversy marked the opening match after the shutdown, with faulty goal-line technology robbing Sheffield United of a legitimate goal against Aston Villa in their 0-0 draw.

Sixth-placed United thought they had scored when Oliver Norwood’s free kick late in the first half seemed to have been carried well over the line by home goalkeeper Orjan Nyland, under pressure from Keinan Davis.

But referee Michael Oliver’s goal-line technology watch did not signal a goal and the video assistant referee did not overrule what seemed a clear mistake.

In a statement on Twitter, Hawk-Eye Innovations said the match officials had not received a signal to their watch or earpiece and that the seven cameras in the stadium “were significantly occluded by the goalkeeper, defender and goalpost”.

“Hawk-Eye unreservedly apologises to the Premier League, Sheffield United and everyone affected by this incident.”

The apology didn’t appease Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder. “My issue is obviously one of frustration,” he said.

“Seven cameras haven’t picked it up – the most technical league in the world – everything we see at every angle and it hasn’t seen a goal. That is disappointing from our point of view.

“The statement has come out and it is unprecedented, unbelievable.”

Manchester City beat Arsenal Gunners 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium, with Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne (penalty) and Phil Foden scoring.

Arsenal’s David Luiz, who was at fault for the first goal, was sent off for conceding the penalty in Gunners manager Mikel Arteta’s first outing against his former club where he was City manager Guardiola’s assistant.

City’s win reduced the gap between themselves and runaway leaders Liverpool to 22 points. Jurgen Klopp’s Reds need two wins to secure their first title since 1990.

The only downside for City was an injury to Eric Garcia, who was taken off on a stretcher after colliding with Ederson.

Guardiola said defender Garcia was conscious but needed to be taken to hospital for further checks.

“We are a little bit concerned,” he said. “He responds well but we have to wait for the next few hours.”

As for the Premier League’s stance on Black Lives Matter, Guardiola said:

“We should send a thousand million messages for the black people.

“I’m embarrassed and ashamed of what the white people have done for the black people.

“All the gestures are good and positive. We have to do a lot of things for the black people which we have not done so far.”

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AAP