Czech Football Players Refused to Kneel for BLM Before Match with Wales

The Czech national football team refused to kneel in support of the Black Lives Matter movement before Tuesday’s match against Wales.

The British media linked this to the recent affair of Slavia Prague defender Ondřej Kúdela, who was accused of racism, according to Echo24. However, the Czech team announced its “apolitical stance” on the matter of kneeling in advance.

The Czech team was the first not to kneel, but they have since been joined by Polish players as well.

As well as other media, it pointed out that the defender of Prague’s Slavia Ondřej Kúdela, who is being investigated due to an alleged racist remark, which was allegedly said almost two weeks ago in retaliation for the European League finals against the Scottish Glasgow Rangers team, after a player of the Scottish team Kemar Roofe fouled indiscriminately and badly injured the goalkeeper of Slavia.

However, even before the match, the management of the national football team and the Football Association of the Czech Republic (FACR) jointly announced the apolitical position of the national team on some topics in the context of the events of recent days.

“This namely concerns the Black Lives Matter (BLM) initiative, in which some players kneel before football matches. To express their support for the fight against racism and other displays of discrimination, xenophobia, and antisemitism, the Czech national team will point to the UEFA Respect inscription on the left sleeve of their jerseys, referring to the UEFA campaign of the same name,” stated the Czech national football team in a statement before the match.

The Czech national football team had no problem kneeling before the matches during the autumn of last year. However, by kneeling in the October match against Scotland, the Czech footballers outraged a large part of the fans, who called them “idiots” and “sheep” on the Internet because of this gesture.

The investigation has not yet proven anything about Kúdela

According to Slavia Football Club, neither UEFA investigation nor the police have yet revealed whether the defender Ondřej Kúdela insulted Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara with a racist slur. T

he UEFA inspector dealing with the events of the match is due to prepare a report by Monday. Slavia also defended itself against escalating pressure from Rangers and others in the UK against UEFA and the police.