Love or hate: that seems to be the lot of Black England footballers. Score and the nation adores you – you represent the best of British. Have a bad match, and the mob bigotry descends – go back to where you came from, you bloody immigrant.

So it is that today England are celebrating supersub teenager Michelle Agyemang, whose last-minute equaliser – for the second match running – kept the national team in the Euros. Meanwhile, teammate Jess Carter was still reeling from the racial abuse she suffered at the hands of England fans after performances in earlier matches that were deemed below par.

It’s a similar story for England’s men: “heroes” Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Ollie Watkins scored game-changing goals all the way to the Euros final last year. Three years earlier, when they missed crucial penalties, Saka and two of his teammates faced a tidal wave of race hate.

The abuse this month, coming mainly from England fans, led to 27-year-old Jess Carter saying: “While I feel every fan is entitled to their opinion on performance and result I don’t agree or think it’s OK to target someone’s appearance or race.”

Her England colleagues, including her manager Sarina Wiegman, have come out in support and condemned the “disgusting and disgraceful” racism – and last night, in protest, they decided not to take the knee before their semi-final against Italy. Instead, the players remained standing and the substitutes, just off pitch, lined up in support. But I’m left wondering, was that really the right thing to do?

Taking the knee has, especially since the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, become a signal known around the world highlighting the enduring evil of racism. No one ever claimed it would, on its own, end the bigotry and prejudice embedded in societies for decades. Yet it has given a brief occasional moment, seen by audiences around the world, to remind people that we’ve still got a long way to go.

I can’t quite understand how it could........

© The Guardian