New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) England head coach Sarina Wiegman believes taking a knee, a tradition to show support for the black lives matter campaign, is simply not enough of a stand against racism after defender Jess Carter was subjected to racist online abuse.

The Lionesses squad released a statement confirming they will no longer be taking the knee ahead of kick-off to express support for teammate and England defender Jess Carte, who revealed she was on the receiving end of racial abuse during the ongoing Women’s European Championship.

“It is clear we and football need to find another way to tackle racism. Taking the knee, that’s not enough. We have done that for a while. The impact is not good enough, it’s not as big as we think. “When there is this form of racism we felt we have to do something else, something different, so that’s why we are not taking the knee,” Wiegman told BBC Sport.

Carter so far has played 310 minutes whilst starting all four games at the Euro’s during England’s run to the semi-final against Italy on Wednesday (IST). The police investigation into the matter is underway.

England midfielder Georgia Stanway believes it has gone ‘past’ the point of taking a knee and wants to send the message that change is needed.

“We feel like it has gone past that [taking the knee] now. We feel it is still happening even when we are taking the knee. We have decided that we will stand and we will not do that. We think that a way of making change in itself because we want to get people talking – we want to tell people that what is being done isn’t enough,” Stanway said.

After conceding two early goals against Sweden, the defending champions roared back and drew the quarter-final clash 2-2, before eventually moving past on penalties

–IANS

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