Ian Wright's passionate response as England Lionesses decide against taking the knee

Ian Wright has claimed taking the knee is a "personal" decision after England Women opted not to perform the gesture in their Euro 2025 semi-final clash against Italy on Tuesday night.

England have been taking the knee throughout the tournament in Switzerland and have been keen to show their stance against racism after defender Jess Carter received abuse on social media while playing for the Lionesses.

But the Lionesses confirmed they would not adopt the gesture against the Italians after Lucy Bronze said the team questioned whether "the message is as strong as it used to be". Instead, players decided to stand before kick-off.

Former England and Arsenal star Wright gave his verdict on the decision ahead of England's crucial clash and said while he personally would continue to take the knee if he was still in football, he insisted it was down to the player to decide.

"The decision to take the knee… it’s always one that should have been a personal thing," he said on ITV. "If you want to take the knee, you take the knee.

READ MORE: Ian Wright makes ITV comeback for England semi-final after Eni Aluko row

READ MORE: Italy boss responds to racist abuse suffered by England star ahead of Euro 2025 semi-final

"For me personally, if I was playing now for everything the knee represents, Colin Kapernick, representing respective injustice and equality and everything that goes with it, I would probably still take the knee - even if I had to do it on my own. But in respect of Jess, the priority is that she’s OK, she’s got the support around her.

"But there’s nothing more I can say, I’ve said everything over the years in respect of racism and what it means and what it does and how it affects people…and nothing is getting any better."

Wright added that families must make their children "resilient" towards racist abuse after campaigning against racism in sport for many years while working in broadcasting.

“For me, what I would say to people now is prepare your children, prepare your family, make them resilient towards it because it’s going to continue to come," he said. "People say 'Wrighty that’s a bit negative' - it’s not negative.

"They’ve been winning, they’re winning now and they will continue to win. So I would urge people to just get your family resilient against it. Get your kids resilience and build resilience against them."

The gesture of taking the knee was adopted by a number of football teams after George Floyd was killed by a white policeman in 2020 - and has been used as a symbol of anti-discrimination in sport ever since.

But England have decided to go in a different direction and while speaking at a press conference this week, Bronze said the team were keen to look at new ways they could make their views known because current methods were not good enough.

"I think the problem is that as the game grows and everything grows, in football and in life, as much as there might be change, there are more outlets for abuse and racism as well," she said.

"It’s just not enough. I think that’s the point. Not enough is being done. There are small changes being made, there’s always small steps forward, but that’s the problem. It’s always a small step.

"And we don’t want it to be small steps anymore. We want it to be ‘this is happening, there’s change, it’s unacceptable’, and there’s no more small steps, because we get to the point of where it should be in the world, and especially in the world of footballers.

"It feels like there can be a place where we can control abuse online, especially racism online. Everything is monitored online, so it just doesn’t make sense to us."

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