Mikel Arteta says that there have been talks between clubs and the Premier League over continued support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
After lockdown, players, managers, coaching staff and other attendees took a knee before kick-off of each game, but it remains to be seen what will happen throughout this new season.
Asked about the continuation of the gesture to keep awareness high, Arteta said, “There has been some communication between the clubs, the Premier League and the FA about how we’re going to continue to support that cause.
“I am sure in the next few days you’re going to have some news about how we’re going to handle that.”
The issue of Covid-19 is still very much on the agenda, with some players in quarantine because of their travel arrangements. Chelsea, for example, have eight players in self-isolation after holidays abroad, and as the season is set to get underway with games being played behind closed doors, it’s something everyone has to be mindful of.
“It is not just football, it is in our society,” said Arteta. “We need to be aware of that.
“The fact that you went on holiday made you think that everything is gone, but we have to start back being really cautious, maintaining our distances, all the security measures we have in place, and we are able to provide that.
“We showed to the world that we can create safe environments for our athletes, so let’s hope we can continue to do that.”
Meanwhile, there’s good news for fans in the UK who grew used to every game being broadcast after lockdown. The Times (£) report that a breakthrough has been made which will allow matches to be shown on TV, for at least as long as fans are not allowed back in stadiums.
The full details are not known yet but a Premier League announcement is expected ahead of the new season.
Cool more football on TV
I’m sorry but I just think this black lives matter fixation is really bizarre and totally misjudged. Firstly, this whole idea that English football is a snakes nest of racism, I totally reject. I’ve been going to games since the early nineties and must’ve been to hundreds, if not thousands, of football matches all over the UK. The only racist comment I’ve ever heard was in the mid nineties when someone shouted “b**** b******” at one of the players. Everyone around this person went absolutely mental and they were eventually removed from the ground. And that was the nineties. We… Read more »
I’m yet to find a human on this planet who doesn’t think black lives matter.
Have you watched the news at any point in the last … I dunno … ever?!
Sorry, I should have said ‘meet’ instead of ‘find’. There are people out there who are full on racist I’m sure. But there are also people out there who fall in love with the Eiffel Tower and try and make love to it.
If you’re suggesting that racists are as rare as people who want to fuck a gigantic metal tower in France, I’d politely suggest you’re way off the mark here.
Maybe I’m super naive and I think it helps that I’m not on twitter, facebook or insta (which is why I bore you all so much with opinions!) but I just don’t see this epidemic of racism in Britain. Not in the workplace, not at the football, not in my social life. Maybe it’s happening behind my back but I’ve lived in Cardiff, Bristol, Oxford and now London, in poor areas and rich, and I just don’t see or hear this stuff we are obsessed our communities are infested with.
Just because it’s not your experience doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
I think it’s important to listen and be open to what people are telling us rather than dismissing it because we don’t have to deal with it.
I’m sure it exists. I don’t deny that. People can be dumb and tribal.
But is it prevalent enough to basically back a radical movement which believes that the whole western world needs toppling because it?
J4H, You’re misrepresenting BLM and misunderstanding systematic racism. But here’s your opportunity to learn. Hopefully whatever the FA does brings more people like you into the conversation to learn a thing or two—you’re case in point for why Kap started kneeling.
If racism is systemic then surely it exists within the system. Can you point me to a law that is racist or discriminates because of skin colour? Could you also explain why, if Britain is such an unavoidable racist hellhole, Nigerian immigrants on average graduate with better grades, go to better universities and get paid more than the average white person? How is it that this subsection of black people are able to escape the inherent discrimination of our country? By claiming it’s all to do with racism you actually do a disservice to certain communities who need our help… Read more »
“Claiming it’s all to do with racism” is a straw man. I sure as hell never made that claim and neither are supporters of BLM. But look, I’m not going to teach a stranger on an Arsenal fan site about racism. Talk to some of your black friends about their experiences. Please resist getting information from places like twitter (or randos like myself on Arseblog.news). You have a lot to learn, but becoming a better, more understanding person takes some work. As a fellow Arsenal fan, I wish you the best of luck!
You too brother! Thanks for the debate.
I wish they could all end as respectfully as this!
Still a valid point. BLM is a lot more than just “Could the US please stop shooting and beating up black citizens at random” – it *does* contradict the complete lack of reaction to other political issues (China, to name just one). Yes, world politics. And Yes, capitalism. And Yes, racism is a lot cheaper to speak out against. But the points raised are valid. I’m happy to have all clubs playing in rainbow colors for a full season to support fair and equal treatment of any and all minorities, racial, religious, sexual. I think, looking at what’s happening in… Read more »
I think you’ve worded this a lot better than I could hope to! Especially the last paragraph. I actually believe that unless you want unending political discourse interrupting our beloved sports, it’s important to remain completely impartial to all movements. The problem seems to be that if you don’t endorse BLM then, by their standards, you are implicit in the racism. This is a rather alarming and non progressive way of getting your point across which I’ll say once again is a totally meaningful cause. But when you start telling people to repeat what you say or kneel when you… Read more »
So you are saying BLM should equally acknowledge human rights injustices in china, asylum detention centres used by Australia in the South Pacific, desaparecidos in South America, because they are equally important. So, really you’re saying they should just change their name to all lives matter and promote all injustices. FFS. Talk about white privilege and paternalist white culture. Maybe you and Johnny4Hats should trying LISTENING for just a bit instead of trying to tell black people and a movement that is highlighting SYSTEMIC racism and injustices, particularly in the USA, but everywhere what you think they should be doing.… Read more »
And the previously well mannered debate ends again.
Just shout “white privilege”, capitalise a few words and make a generic statement about white people.
There’s a discussion to be had here. But people would prefer to just shout slogans and throw random buzz words at those who are concerned about a radical movement spreading through our culture without scrutiny.
I like that you say “white men don’t always know everything” and then immediately tell us to just listen to Mikel Arteta. That’s solid logic.
Calling people following a movement by taking a knee out of respect injustices committed to people of colour is polite is it? White Colonialism spread throughout the world with impunity and set up this structured society that gives privilege based on the colour of skin. Being British (I assume) you should be very well aware of that. Why are you so worried about toppling a system that relies on classism, segregation, and both social and environmental exploitation to continue to funnel wealth from the general population to the 1%ers who are mostly white men? Vested interests? Or secretly you just… Read more »
I am so happy to look at alternative ways of governance. The points you make are things which trouble all of us. It’s just that humanities horrible and bloody history proves that corruption and evil are inescapable. There’s no political system which can quell them. In fact, quite the opposite. Most others encourage them to a far more destructive degree. BLM doesn’t have a system either. It just wants this one demolished. I see no political theory in BLM apart from a modern form of Marxism which is race based instead of class based. We have to learn from history.… Read more »
There are far more socialist versions of market economies that function (see Scandinavia). But a system that has seen upper tax thresholds collapse from 70% in the 60s and 70s to 0-20% today is as exploitative system that has ever existed and EASILY the least sustainable. It is destined to collapse, already emerging from the rubble of broken capitalism is more totalitarian, more controlling “coporatocracies”. BLM wants to restructure that system to produce more equality not to repress white people, but for equality. There are definitely more extreme views emerging in the movement in the USA because the situation is… Read more »
I think we all want equality. But you haven’t really said how you are going to make this utopian equal world. And you certainly haven’t taken our competitive human nature into the equation. Hierarchies of power and dominance are as natural to life as sunlight. Not many footballers make it to professional. Perhaps we should have a fairer system where everyone who wants to gets to play for Arsenal? After all, it doesn’t seem fair that I was never athletically gifted enough to put on the red and white. You keep saying capitalism is broken. But it has lifted millions… Read more »
Dude, seriously, fuck off. Your ignorance doesn’t belong and neither do your bad-faith arguments. Racism is real. It’s real in the US and it’s real in Britain (I’ve lived in both). You might fail to grasp it, but that’s because you’re just a shitty person. Do me a favor and let’s exchange personal information, so I can give you few “lessons” in person you pathetic POS.
Do me a favor and let’s exchange personal information, so I can give you few “lessons” in person you pathetic POS.
This is true BLM. Fascist.
Just gonna leave this here…
https://mobile.twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1299956667287703553
wow, a proper hardass. cribs or bloods? or are you the one that chased özil on that vespa? that was the tuk tuk gang, wasn’t it?
I beg to differ #joinourgrowingcommunity
Watching all the misinformation/disinformation dished out to us by The MSMBC? No thanks!
I think as soon as fans are allowed back in the stadium this sort of thing will probably die away. It’s hard to disguise some of the internal contradictions of the movement and the absurdities which have been glossed over. I mean, the players can still have their moment of protest but it’s not like the fans are going to descend into respectful silence at the start of every game. I mean, at least a few of us don’t want to abolish capitalism or dismantle the nuclear family so I can imagine the sound of sighing or eye-rolling might be… Read more »
From the Independent 2015 –
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cows-officially-the-most-deadly-large-animals-in-britain-a6727266.html
Approx 5 people a year killed by cattle over 15 year period.
Most are farmworkers with approx 1.1 walkers per year killed by cattle – generally solitary walker with dog.
Always good to have statistics to back up assertions!
Fairness in society does matter to me, and there are lots of ism’s to be rectified. Hopefully one that covers a large minority of the population might help the situation for other minorities that suffer from the aggressions and micro aggressions prevalent in our society
We obviously get our cow deaths from different sources… Can’t believe we are cheapening the meta narrative with this!
https://www.businessinsider.com/deadliest-animals-us-dont-include-sharks-crocodiles-dogs-cows-2019-8?r=US&IR=T
Well I am sorry that your facts pertain to the US and there I was thinking we were talking about the UK and Arsenal’s response to BLM. You are right again bringing deaths of people that got killed by cows into a discussion about BLM is a bit weird and does debase it. Maybe don’t do it next time! Must admit I could not find any easy links to anarchism and BLM or the toppling of capatilism, though that does seem to be a common theme that has been painted on the movement in the US by some sections of… Read more »
I refer you to the peoples republic of CHAZ. And then CHOP.
We acknowledge, respect, and celebrate differences and commonalities.
We work vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension, all people.
Maybe go and look up the Black Lives matter website…above are a couple of principles that they are advocating. Sorry nothing about anarchism
https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/
CHAZ and CHOP seem to be formed from various groups. According to Wiki (and other sites) not specifically BLM. I am not sure what those people believe, I can’t speak for them I have never been there
I totally agree 100% with everything you wrote….. And I’m black! The BLM is definitely not fighting for black lives……. This political tool’s far disguised core has absolutely nothing to do with black lives but US politics.
What’s next? Becoming Antifa Apologetics?
But it does make middle class white mums look good in front of their polo club friends…!
The fatuousness with which you dismiss this is really part of the problem. ‘Polo club friends’, what is that?! This isn’t a nice new hat or something. This week we saw a black man shot 7 times in the back by armed police while his kids were in the car. And the depressing part is nobody is even that surprised or shocked when things like that happen. We’ve become so desensitised to it. Some people ask ‘Well, what did he do to get shot?’, instead of ‘How the fuck is this an acceptable part of policing?’ If that doesn’t demonstrate… Read more »
I think there is an aspect of pandering that some are reacting to. Like when the company that makes my razor (a company notorious for their cruelty of animals) turns BLM into an ad. But, this new civil rights movement is rooted in professional sports in a number of ways. It may be similar to how the civil rights movement of the 60s has its roots in Black churches. I’d like to also note that historically, pro-democracy, pro-equality movements like the civil rights movement of the 60s have had a positive impact for people outside their core constituency. To put… Read more »
The corporate piggybacking is obviously cynical, and I can understand people looking at that with a crooked eyebrow.
Excellent points as well re: previous movements.
I just don’t get the blanket dismissal (from others) of a movement which opposes racism and discrimination as a trend to show off to your friends over.
It’s 2020, we should be beyond that stuff now. We shouldn’t be even talking about things like fascism in this day and age, and yet here we are.
It seems odd that these shootings are immediately just assumed to be racist attacks, carried out by white supremacist cops. We really don’t have the whole story yet and until we do, it’d probably be better if we didn’t just start burning the world down. There’s far too much emotion flying round, probably because the world has been chained to social media, and it looks like America seriously needs some police reform. This comes from investing money and being way more selective about who they recruit, not defunding them. But we get nowhere from rioting or looting. And it’s not… Read more »
The consistent shooting, murdering, neck-kneeling, choking etc of black people by white cops is the whole point: it is borne out of racism – overt or systemic, it doesn’t really matter. It’s racism in action, and people die because of it.
Hence the protests. Hence the riots. Hence the movement.
Listen arseblog you need to broaden your research sourches. If you consistently watch/read/listen to one side of this debate you will think it is a consistent issue. In reality 10 unarmed blacks were shot by US police in 2019 compared to 19 whites. Even taking into account the disproportional population (13% of US citizens are Black) that number still doesn’t suggest “systemic racism” against Black people. Most people are not actually racist so why should police be? They are also humans. Try not to let your (understandable) emotions gain control and take a more rational and balanced view please. In… Read more »
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/23/fact-check-how-many-unarmed-black-men-did-police-kill-2019/5322455002/
seems to be 13 unarmed black people with lots of caveats about not very good data
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1124036/number-people-killed-police-ethnicity-us/
sorry blogs I like to check numbers when people put them out there. There are probably better sources out there
I hope this broadens your research 🙂 not that this is a particularly uplifting topic.
In equal measure I get uplifted by the solidarity I see across ethnicity for the BLM protests and then quickly get bought back down to earth by the mendacity shown by others
I said unarmed. You can’t make a distinction of racism if they are armed because it could be self-defence. Real racism actually increases when you have people like BLM charging round indiscriminately telling everyone they are racist. In reality, real racists really are rare. 0.01% of last UK census agreed they were racist – if that’s not systemic I’d like to know what is??
The link iin the first post was unarmed. Small samples get changed a lot by movements in numbers quite a bit.
Small sample sizes have also got to use relevant statistical analysis for small samples
Link in the second just widened the statistics, but with no analysis. You took what you wanted from it. Still doesn’t look great if you do not have obvious white ethnicity.
Never very easy to answer questions about yourself – everyone likes to look good to themselves, but I could be wrong!
Anybody wants a seriously educated source relating to this, check out Coleman Hughes. He’s excellent. Ciao.
Blogs “moral superiority” is based on nothing. He should indeed broaden his research, find some additional sources and get his facts straight. Now he looks like a clown with an uninformed opinion. What he probably is.
HE WAS SHOT 7 TIMES IN THE BACK!!! It’s the job of police to descalate. That officer/those officers had one thing on their mind – killing a man.
Black people in the US are 2.5x more likely that a white person to be shot and killed in the USA.
Here are some names and stories of but a few:
https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2020/know-their-names/index.html
The more I read your comments, the more it is clear you are a part of the problem with basically zero listening to anything but voices sharing your opinion.
It’s an interesting one stats wise because the sad truth (and this could be totally to do with historic racism) is that black people, as a pure statistic, do commit more crimes. Now I know that’s a dreadful statement and there are a lot of reasons for this, but that’s the unavoidable truth. As a result, the interactions between black people and police are considerably higher. And when you live in a country where everyone’s armed then tragedy strikes at a greater rate. I won’t justify the dreadful shooting but the guy was continually resisting arrest and then leans into… Read more »
“could be totally to do with historic racism”
but
“that black people…commit more crimes”
“I won’t justify the dreadful shooting but…”
Then you will anyway…
America has massive problems, but you live in a fantasy realm of your own “Little Britain” if you think Britain and other places also don’t promote the many of the same issues. The “well it’s way worse somewhere else” line has been used to death.
I’ve said my piece, too much. COYG!
Ok mate. I’d like to leave it there as well. I’m a massive fan of this site and everything that Andrew does so the last thing I want to do is cause offence or make people mad. I love stats and often look a little too closely without perhaps seeing personal stories or individual strife. I’m just very proud of the world we live in and I think we give ourselves a really hard time about how dreadful it is. I have many Eastern European friends and they tell me stories that make me eternally grateful for this country and… Read more »
If society looks in the same place all the time for the perpetrators of crime ..guess what thats where you find it
“It seems odd that these shootings are immediately just assumed to be racist attacks, carried out by white supremacist cops.” So this is were you’re missing the point of the movement, my fellow Gooner. This is not what is assumed, and in fact it is not thought that the cops themselves were even racists at all in these cases. What BLM is highlighting is that black men are killed by police alarmingly often, (a “policing problem”), but very seldom face any consequences for it. Essentially, it seems to take nothing less than a riot to get one of these rogue… Read more »
No, it’s not that the shootings are “immediately” assumed “to be racist attacks carried out by white supremacist cops.”I haven’t assumed anything. I’ve watched filmed evidence. Please don’t start about how something might have happened before the tape begins: it might have, but there is plenty of context here. Whatever happened earlier, an unarmed Black man, whose shirt was held by a cop, with other cops present, was shot seven times. A couple of days later, that same police department ignored a white kid walking toward them with a military-style long rifle clearly visible, with people shouting that he had… Read more »
I will not wade into the veracity of the BLM movement, or its merits, nor lack thereof. I’d say, follow the money. For ‘football’, there is relatively low risk to supporting BLM because only a small number of people watch the EPL in the US. If ‘football’ were to rally against China with regards to Uighur camps, they’d lose a lot of revenue. The same applies to the NBA, its easy to boycott in the US because their fan base is already supportive of BLM, but they did not criticize China’s Hong Kong takeover for fear of losing their fans.… Read more »
NBA viewing figures are down 45% in the US so maybe their fanbase isn’t as supportive as they’d imagined?
Frank, I’d ask for a reliable source. If indeed it has dropped due to this most recent Kenosha issue, I’m not sure how they are measuring it. I don’t think any games have been played since their boycott.
Fair enough. I read this prior to Kenosha.
That’s not true. Prime time numbers are up but they’re playing now games in b the day this overall numbers are down because many people are working. Skewing data to suit a narrative. https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2020/08/nba-playoff-ratings-primetime-daytime-espn-tnt/
“ Afternoon and evening windows have been far weaker, averaging just 1.28 million viewers. Magic-Bucks averaged 1.63 million in the 6 PM window on Thursday, down 27% from an 8 PM Magic-Raptors game on day four of last year’s playoffs (2.24M). Rockets-Thunder averaged 1.32 million at 3:30 PM and Heat-Pacers just 764,000 at 1 PM. On Wednesday, Sixers-Celtics averaged 1.71 million at 6:30 PM — down 40% from an 8 PM Nets-Sixers game on day three of last year’s playoffs (2.85M). Jazz-Nuggets averaged 1.07 million at 4 PM and Nets-Raptors chipped in just 281,000 on NBA TV at 1:30 PM.… Read more »
It’s a sad fact of life that there’s far too much hate in the world (unless of course you’re talking about hating the Spuds, in which case there’s nowhere near enough, but I digress) and to my mind – and I’m sure we can all agree on this – there is absolutely no place on this planet for judging people by the colour of their skin.
So, if taking the knee signifies opposition to that, then I have no problem with it whatsoever – and kudos to The Arsenal for backing it.
I’m white and have experienced racism from white, black and asian people – unfortunately there are bad eggs in all cultures/races!!! Maybe a slogan of “all lives matter” would be appropriate in a world full of so much hate!!! Unfortunately you have influential people that perpetuate the hate – Donald, Vladimir, Kim Jong to name a few!!!