Importance of taking the knee in soccer 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, 37 percent of soccer fans believed that this gesture was very important or fairly important for tackling racism, while this figure increased to 76 percent among soccer fans in Portugal.

Importance of professional soccer players taking the knee before matches in selected European countries as of March 2021

Characteristic	Very/fairly important	Don't know	Not very/at all important
Portugal	76%	2%	22%
Spain	66%	5%	30%
Italy	57%	4%	39%
France	48%	10%	43%
Germany	48%	10%	42%
The Netherlands	47%	5%	48%
Wales	41%	5%	53%
England	37%	5%	57%
Scotland	36%	8%	57%

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Release date

June 2021

More information

Region

Europe

Survey time period

February 23 to March 31, 2021

Number of respondents

11,362 respondents

Age group

18 and over

Special properties

among soccer fans

Method of interview

Online survey

Supplementary notes

This question was phrased by the source as follows: "How important, if at all, do you think professional football players and staff kneeling before matches can be in tackling racism?"

Missing percentage points to 100 percent are probably due to rounding.

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