New polling: most fans back players taking the knee

With the new football season underway, and to coincide with the launch of the new HOPE not hate Charitable Trust publication, Heroes of the Terraces,…

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Chapter : New polling: most fans back players taking the knee

With the new football season underway, and to coincide with the launch of the new HOPE not hate Charitable Trust publication, Heroes of the Terraces, Nick Lowles looks at new polling on football and racism.


With the curtain lifting on the new football season, new polling commissioned by HOPE not hate has some powerful results which highlight the state of racism in football, and how united people are in opposing it. 

Here’s the big result for me: 3 out of 4 people (72%) now recognise that racism is a serious problem in football – including 66% of Conservative voters who agreed it is ‘serious’ or ‘very serious’. The polling also revealed that: 

  • Well over half of people (59%) believe that ministers were wrong to say that fans should be allowed to boo players taking the knee, including half (49%) of Conservative voters.  
  • The majority of people (62%), agree that footballers should be involved in social issues such as campaigns against racism or free school meals. 
  • Most people (63%) support permanently banning people from social media for racist abuse, and there is strong support (67%) for banning those who have racially abused players on social media from football grounds. 

We’re publishing these results to coincide with the launch of a new publication by HOPE not hate Charitable Trust, Heroes of the Terraces: Football, anti-fascism and protest, which celebrates how across the world, football fans have historically used the terraces to oppose fascism, racism and hate. The magazine tells the stories of people standing up to racists and offering solidarity to those targeted or using their collective strength to demand change across the world, highlighting heroes who need have stood up to hate over the last few years and across history.  

While it is a sad reality that there are people who would abuse fans, teams or players, we also need to celebrate the heroes of the terraces who have been fighting racism and hate now, and over the course of history. Our polling shows that there is lots to celebrate as the success of Gareth Southgate and the England team in highlighting these issues has created a rallying cry against racism in football, and cemented people’s beliefs that more needs to be done to tackle the problem. 

I hope you’ll get a copy of the new magazine, but we’ll also be publishing selected articles from it on our site.

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