The horrific news coming out of Ibrox this Thursday sent shockwaves to those with even the most minuscule of interests in Scottish Football, or any form of football in general.
If you aren’t aware already, theRangers’ Glen Kamara allegedly received some utterly shocking and outright disgraceful racist abuse on Thursday night in their Europa League tie; with Slavia’s Ondrej Kudela the culprit in question. Further abuse to this was seen later that night, with Slavia fans making a banner with some utterly vile comments to Kamara, before the Finnish international alongside team-mate Kemar Roofe continued to receive racial abuse online.
UEFA have agreed to investigate it, however judging by previous punishments for racism, this ordeal won’t culminate in severe punishment for Slavia Prague and Kudela – something which needs to happen, and promptly.
Steven Gerrard confirmed before the game that his staff and players wouldn’t take a knee in accordance with the usual pre-match rituals we have seen throughout the lockdown period – a decision well received by supporters, who agree that the taking of the knee is rendered pointless if this horrific racial abuse continues to occur in our beautiful game. And, in solidarity with Gerrard’s decision, John Kennedy confirmed his Celtic staff and players wouldn’t take a knee either as the clubs’ stand side by side to eradicate any form of racist abuse.
Speaking to Sky Sports before the derby, Kennedy said: “We will be the same in not taking the knee. I think it is important that everyone comes together, and some things are bigger than football. This is obviously an issue bigger than football – it is an issue across society in general, but football is a platform to send out a strong message and so we will be doing the same.”
🗣️The thoughts of Celtic interim boss John Kennedy ahead of the match against Rangers 👇
📺Watch the Old Firm game at home – live on Sky Sports pic.twitter.com/H7DB6h09x4
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) March 21, 2021
The Celtic Star doesn’t stand for any form of racial abuse whatsoever; racism is something that should not be tolerated in any walk of life.
