The escalating row over players taking the knee for Black Lives Matter (BLM) in the UK has stooped to another low after a fan was thrown out for booing during the gesture, while a CEO has pledged to identify and target dissenters.
League Two side Exeter ejected a fan from their home stadium after booing was heard when players took a knee before kick-off ahead of a match on Tuesday, warning that they would take “appropriate action” in the most high-profile example to date of a fan being punished for opposing the pre-match gesture.
Jeers also rang out when Colchester, whose chairman offered fans who did not agree with kneeling a refund on their season tickets last week, played at Cambridge’s Abbey Stadium, infuriating the hosts’ chief executive, Ian Mather.
“There are terms of entry into the Abbey Stadium, as with any other stadium,” Mather told Sky Sports News after the match, describing himself as “angry” and “incredibly frustrated”. “We can determine what behaviour’s acceptable and not.
“Identifying them is actually quite easy. Somebody actually sent me a direct message on Twitter last night explaining his views, and others have been identified in other seats. So finding them is actually not very hard.”
Cambridge coach Mark Bonner echoed Mather’s views by calling the scenes “unacceptable.”
“I’m disgusted, to be honest,” he said after his side’s 2-1 win. “It shines a light on our club for all the wrong reasons.
Just the start. When crowds increase this will happen everywhere.Link arms against racism.
It’s not a racist thing it’s a BLM thing, that people don’t agree with. FA has kick it out, if players kneeled for “Kick it out”no one would be bothered. It should also be a choice to knee or not, The FA need to distance them selfs from BLM in my opinion.
Detest racism in every form but this isn’t actually going to do anything against racism. I dont get what it’s meant to achieve.
“What was a really good game for us on the pitch was overshadowed by a really small minority who decided to boo in a moment when we’re reflecting the values that everyone at our club believes in.
“What was most encouraging is the vast majority drowned them out quite quickly with applause and reflected the values of our club much better.
“We work incredibly hard in the community and there’s massive work that goes on to highlight all these issues.
Good, they need to stop this madness.
Politics and Sports don’t mix, only went on this long because fans have not been able to attend.
Good. Doing it once was enough, doing it every single match is ridiculous. Keep politics, BLM on this occasion, out of sport!
“We’ve clearly got some work to do because some people have embarrassed our club and embarrassed themselves, to be honest.”
Many fans clearly did not agree with that viewpoint. “Good,” said one, responding to the show of disapproval by the supporters.
“[Kneeling] once was enough – doing it every single match is ridiculous. Keep politics – BLM on this occasion – out of sport.”
Another warned: “Politics and sports don’t mix. It only went on this long because fans have not been able to attend.”
