Players in the Premier League will see their names replaced by ‘Black Lives Matters’ when matches resume on Wedneaday to support the movement that requires progressive change
If it all gets back on track on Wednesday, nothing will be more busy than a shirt from the Premier League.
A Black Lives Matter logo will wrestle for publicity on the visitors’ shirts at the Etihad with a patch encouraging you to visit Rwanda, one of the world’s poorest countries whose autocratic dictator and ardent Gunner fan somehow came up with £30million to become one of the key sponsors of Arsenal.
Your average Rwandan earns £ 2 a week.
A badge thanking the NHS for their efforts will compliment the grander front-of-the-jersey logos on 50 per cent of tops in the Premier League, urging you to take up gambling.
According to a recent report, gambling with one problem can cost UK taxpayers up to £ 1.2bn a year.
Online betting firms littered on the shirt fronts of Premier League appear to be registered in Malta, China, the Philippines, the Isle of Man and somewhere else. By way of income, it is anyone’s guess how much of their huge revenues go into supporting the NHS. Most of a shirt from the Premier League will be an ethical minefield.
But not its back.
The Black Lives Matter logo will be on the shirt for the rest of the season, but, also, for the first 12 matches of Project Restart, footballers’ names will be replaced with ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’.
Now when it comes to movements, there are few peers to the game.
Tackle homophobia? Yep, let’s wear laces with the rainbow, that should be the trick. The recent history of the sport is awash with some lip-service slogans and advertising for some T-shirts that turn into nothing more than souvenirs.
That, however, feels different.
Though one that resonates worldwide through society, it is still just a slogan that will stretch between the shoulders of footballers.
But the swell of feeling beneath those shoulders suggests that this is not going to fade away in the game.
The players are behind this – a collective that may have been — until recently — hesitant to speak out on such topics.
In a social media post, Ian Wright suggested Troy Deeney and Wes Morgan were two particular driving forces.
The Newsnight interview by Raheem Sterling was particularly powerful.
However, this initiative smacks of players beginning to fully understand their collective strength.
They have been grouped together with some negative connotations for too long. The new truth is they’re a force for social change, grouped together.
The current climate has had a measurable effect on the authorities.
The outlawing of shirt-removing was once tightly covered by the rule-makers of the game.
Not anymore. There will be many, many goal celebrations featuring the Black Lives Matter movement.
Not only that, the Premier League – in its statement of support of the ¬players – practically encouraged them to take a knee before or during games.
The FA, the EFL, the PFA, the LMA, the PGMOL and the clubs also help. To put it another way, the players take the authorities with them.
The real trick is to get these authorities to tackle the egregious lack of diversity in their own boardrooms and coaching ranks as a matter of urgency and properly.
All the previous starts made on that front have fizzled out, but this is about more than just a slogan on an overcrowded jersey, hopefully.
This feels completely different.
Dele Alli has said he feels ‘betrayed’ in his testimony to an independent investigative committee.
And he was sure.
Betrayed by a naivety of its own. At best, naïveté, at worst, stupidity.
A one-match ban has been issued to Alli for posting a video on Snapchat which seemed to mock an Asian man over coronavirus.
A statement by the FA stated: “The player explained he had, in his words, been ‘betrayed’ by someone on his Snapchat group and the post had been given to the media.”
One day someone will explain to professional footballers that pressing ‘send’ to a social media site is the same as pressing ‘publish’ no matter how limited your group’s numbers are.
At least they have to look at things that way.
A one-match suspension seems a little unfair for that indiscretion, which was more than anything childish. A major donation to a charity with coronavirus might definitely have been more fitting.
Alli was a bit harshly treated, but he only has to blame himself-not the so-called mate who turned him over.
It is said that Tottenham and their boss Daniel Levy are very keen to use their stadium as a test venue in attempts to get fans back inside the grounds.
Considering they spent a billion pounds on it and have lost an Anthony Joshua blockbuster, NFL games, the football and it is lying unused just a year after completion, I bet they are.