Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 4:59 PM• Dominic Mostert • Last update: 17:04

Ahead of the Premier League game between Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion, which started at 4pm on Saturday afternoon, Wilfried Zaha became the first Premier League player to refuse to kneel. Since the death of George Floyd, all players on the field kneel before kick-off as a statement against racial inequality and excessive police brutality. However, Zaha feels that the protest has now lost its meaning.

The attacker of Crystal Palace had announced last month that he no longer wanted to kneel, but could not live up to his words due to an upper leg injury. On Saturday he was back in the base for the first time and was thus given the opportunity to remain standing, while the other 21 players on the field went to the grass. “My decision to stand for kick-off has been known for a few weeks now,” Zaha wrote in a statement published shortly before the game. “There is no right or wrong decision, but for me personally, kneeling has just become part of the routine before a match. It doesn’t matter whether we are standing or kneeling: some of them continue to be attacked.”

“I know there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes at the Premier League to bring about change and I have full respect for that,” Zaha continued. “I also have full respect for my teammates and other players who continue to kneel. I believe that as a society we should encourage better education and that social media companies should take more vigorous action against people who harass others – not just footballers. I just want to focus on it now. football and enjoy being back on the field. “

Zaha himself was racially treated in a message on Instagram in July 2020. He received a threat from an Aston Villa supporter prior to a duel with Aston Villa. The attacker had better not score, otherwise the person in question would pay a visit to his house, it sounded. The threat sender, who later turned out to be 12 years old, wrote that he would visit “ dressed as a ghost, ” called Zaha a “ black cunt, ” and added a photo of members of the Ku Klux Klan preparing for a cross-burn. . He also sent an edited photo of a man in blackface on a package of a breakfast product, with the message ‘coon flakes’. The word ‘coon’ is used in English as a swear word for black people.