{"id":39022,"date":"2021-03-14T13:35:05","date_gmt":"2021-03-14T13:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?p=39022"},"modified":"2021-03-14T12:08:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T12:08:18","slug":"epl-zaha-becomes-first-premier-league-player-to-stop-taking-the-knee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-zaha-becomes-first-premier-league-player-to-stop-taking-the-knee","title":{"rendered":"EPL: Zaha becomes first Premier League player to stop taking the knee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Nigeria<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Crystal Palace winger, Wilfried Zaha, on Saturday became the first Premier League player to stop taking the knee before matches.<\/p>\n

Zaha chose to keep standing, as the other 21 players knelt before the game against West Brom.<\/p>\n

The Ivory Coast international feels that an anti-racism message is being lost.<\/p>\n

Zaha has insisted he remains committed to the fight, but suggests a fresh approach is required.<\/p>\n

A statement from Zaha explaining his actions read in part: \u201cMy decision to stand at kick-off has been public knowledge for a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no right or wrong decision, but I feel kneeling has just become a part of the pre-match routine and whether we kneel or stand, some of us continue to receive abuse..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Crystal Palace winger, Wilfried Zaha, on Saturday became the first Premier League player to stop taking the knee before matches. Zaha chose to keep standing, as the other 21 players knelt before the game against West Brom. The Ivory Coast international feels that an anti-racism message is being lost. Zaha has insisted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":39021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18,26],"tags":[1570,2140,885,254,1996,3398],"class_list":["post-39022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-epl","tag-nigeria","tag-premier-league","tag-zaha"],"yoast_head":"\nEPL: Zaha becomes first Premier League player to stop taking the knee - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crystal Palace winger, Wilfried Zaha, on Saturday became the first Premier League player to stop taking the knee before ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-zaha-becomes-first-premier-league-player-to-stop-taking-the-knee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EPL: Zaha becomes first Premier League player to stop taking the knee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Crystal Palace winger, Wilfried Zaha, on Saturday became the first Premier League player to stop taking the knee before ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-zaha-becomes-first-premier-league-player-to-stop-taking-the-knee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-14T13:35:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/03\/img-604dfc9021054.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1235\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-zaha-becomes-first-premier-league-player-to-stop-taking-the-knee#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-zaha-becomes-first-premier-league-player-to-stop-taking-the-knee\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"EPL: Zaha becomes first Premier League player to stop taking the knee\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-14T13:35:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-zaha-becomes-first-premier-league-player-to-stop-taking-the-knee\"},\"wordCount\":137,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-zaha-becomes-first-premier-league-player-to-stop-taking-the-knee#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/03\/img-604dfc9021054.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"EPL\",\"Nigeria\",\"Premier League\",\"Zaha\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-zaha-becomes-first-premier-league-player-to-stop-taking-the-knee#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-zaha-becomes-first-premier-league-player-to-stop-taking-the-knee\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-zaha-becomes-first-premier-league-player-to-stop-taking-the-knee\",\"name\":\"EPL: Zaha becomes first Premier League player to stop taking the knee - 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