Premier League bosses will hold talks with senior players about scrapping ‘taking the knee’ next season

PREM chiefs will consult with senior players to decide whether to continue to “take the knee” before games next season.

Top-flight players have united in the anti-racism gesture since the return of football at the end of the first pandemic lockdown in 2020.

But after two-and-a-half seasons of the gesture being the final part of the pre-match programme, some have argued that it is time for it to be dropped.

Premier League bosses will not take a formal position until the eve of next season.

That will come after a full consultation with club captains, managers and the PFA to gauge the feeling of the Prem stars.

And while some players have stayed on their feet as the debate has ensued, if the players believe it should continue into the 2022-2023 campaign, it will.

The decision to adopt the pre-match statement came in the wake of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of policemen in the USA.

The first deployment was a direct response to the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US and the slogan replaced the names of the players on all shirts for the first week of restart.

Since then, however, a number of players have made the case that taking the knee is making the point that discrimination - on the grounds of race, gender or sexual identity - must not be part of football.

Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha, Brentford striker Ivan Toney and Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso have been conspicuous by their decision not to join in.

Those decisions brought the matter into focus and saw Aston Villa and England defender Tyrone Mings, a powerful advocate for social change, agreeing: “The knee is something that continually needs to be reviewed.

“Is it still powerful? Is it still making people aware?”

Some fans at England matches before last summer’s Euros booed when Gareth Southgate’s men opted to show their support, with racist chants following from home supporters during the World Cup qualifier in Hungary in September.

England have maintained their stance, backed by the likes of Liverpool’s Cameroon defender Joel Matip, who said earlier this season: "It is a sign of awareness that it's still a big problem with racism.”

Club skippers will take soundings from their team-mates to adopt a united position on the issue - with an awareness that any decision must be broadly backed.