James Tavernier has pleaded with Ibrox fans to respect players taking the knee.
At the start of last season a number of Ibrox stars were criticised online for taking part in the gesture.
Strangely after the Europa League defeat from Slavia Prague the club decided to drop the gesture with the players opting for a Stand of Staunchness instead.
The Scotland squad followed that lead during the European Championships but that looked bad compared with England forcing Andy Robertson and Co to take the knee at Wembley.
Despite the success of the squad thousands of England fans booed their own players for taking the knee.
With similar right-wing mindsets among the Ibrox support the club are clearly concerned about what message tomorrow’s live televised match with Livingston will send out:
Tav told the club website:
Sadly, at some stage during the season, every one of our BAME players received racist abuse online. That is a sad indictment on society and shows just how much work still needs to be done to eradicate it. Add in the fact one of our players received sickening racist abuse on the pitch. Racism is a problem in football, that is an inarguable fact.
As a team and as a club, we must not only stand up against racism, but fight against it- every single day. Whenever our players were abused last season, the way in which our fanbase stood behind us was nothing short of amazing.
Many people have given arguments for and against certain political organisations. Arguments against their actions, and what they purport to stand for. I’ve no interest in all that, neither do my teammates or coaching staff. We will take the knee to stand against racism, nothing more, and nothing less.
That is why we will take the knee prior to our games. This is a very simple, but we hope, effective gesture. It is a symbolic stance against racism, nothing more and nothing less.
Sky Sports will show tomorrow’s match live, Connor Goldson has refused to sign a contract extension with his current contract expiring next May.
Shocking that our captain has to spell it out for an element of our support. If you boo the taking of the knee after reading this then you don’t deserve a seat in the ground. Simple.
— Wee Brooksy (@CarrieCummings4) July 30, 2021
Embarassing that our captain has to spell this out to an element of our support to be honest.
The massive majority of us are behind you all Tav.— Facele55 ? (@FacelessRanger) July 30, 2021
Pretty shite that this has to be explained to some fans but hopefully they listen now and respect the players tomorrow
— Gary (@Gaz1603) July 30, 2021
Would’ve been ok if they didn’t associate this act with blm
— Kyle ????????? (@Kyle5haw) July 30, 2021
Disgraceful that our Captain even needs to come out and do this. If you boo our players relinquish your ticket, there’s plenty of folk waiting to back our boys ???
— ??Footy Mad?? (@darenk23) July 30, 2021
Anyone booing isn’t booing ‘Marxism’, they are booing Tav, Alfredo, Kamara, Defoe, Goldson…
— 55cotia80 (@Scotia80) July 30, 2021
