The captain of Spartak Moscow and the Russian national football team, Georgy Dzhikia, spoke on the kneeling action as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. His words are quoted by KP.RU.
The footballer drew attention to the fact that in the Europa League match against English Leicester City, the red-and-white players waited for a pause after the starting whistle, as the opponents were kneeling. “In the Russian national team, we also respect everyone and there is no need to single out someone. But this is everyone’s personal business, whether or not to kneel down, ”Jikia summed up.
In November, former Lokomotiv Moscow president Olga Smorodskaya called Spartak a racist club after the club’s footballers refused to kneel and support BLM’s rally ahead of the Europa League group stage round four match against Leicester. In “Spartak” they considered Smorodskaya’s statement “too serious an accusation, for which they will have to answer within the framework of the law.”
Footballers around the world kneel as part of the BLM movement. The protesters demand systemic changes and believe that the murder of African American George Floyd by a police officer is connected with racist prejudices in society.
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