Familiarity with taking the knee before pro soccer matches in Europe 2021

First used by NFL player Colin Kaepernick as a protest during the United States national anthem before a game in 2016, the gesture of "taking the knee" has been adopted as a symbol of protest and a call to action against racial inequality. During a March 2021 survey among soccer fans across Europe, the majority of respondents were aware of the reasons for players choosing to kneel on one knee before matches. In England, 90 percent of soccer fans were familiar with the gesture, while this figure dropped to 52 percent among soccer fans in Portugal.