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Italy’s footballers won’t kneel before their team’s Euro 2020 game against Austria at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. The decision not to make the token anti-racism gesture is said to be aimed at avoiding a repeat of what happened before Italy played Wales in Rome on Sunday, when five Italian players knelt but others stood up.
Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that neither Italy nor Austria had informed UEFA that their players would kneel before the match.
Leonardo Bonucci, the captain of the Italian national team, is expected to explain the reason for the decision at a press conference later on Friday, Corriere said.
The anti-racist move has become prominent in sports and Black Lives Matter protests, especially those following the murder of George Floyd last year.
The England team led the way by taking the knee throughout the European Football Championship, which has been postponed from 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, although the gesture has divided fans.
It has also split the European teams, with some teams, or just individual players, taking the knee and others not. Some people have argued that the symbol is political and does not bring significant change in the fight against racism.
The Italian players who refrained from making the gesture ahead of the game against Wales have come under heavy criticism. Enrico Letta, the former Prime Minister, said: Watching Sunday, with all Welsh players on their knees and only [5] of the Italian players doing it, it was not a good image.
Amid the criticism, Paolo Corbi, the communications manager of the Italian teams, said: On behalf of the whole team, we reaffirm that we are against all forms of racism. Adhering or not to a form of protest, symbolic moreover, does not mean ignoring the fight against racism.
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