Rangers and Celtic players were united in their stand against racism ahead of the Old Firm derby on Sunday.
Rather than take the knee, the squads stood side by side in support of Glen Kamara who was allegedly racially abused in the Europa League game against Slavia Prague.
Sky Sports
On Saturday, Motherwell and Dundee United players backed the Rangers man by remaining standing rather than take the knee in protest against racism in their games against Aberdeen and Kilmarnock respectively.
“We won’t take the knee. I spoke to both of my captains yesterday and they made a collective decision that they will stand and stand together side-by-side and [staff] will support that and follow suit, too,” Rangers manager Steven Gerrard said.
Kamara started the game at Celtic Park and his manager said he was raring to go and looking forward to it.
Celtic interim manager John Kennedy added his team will be doing the same.
“I think it’s important that everybody comes together, this is bigger than football and an issue in society in general.
“Football is a platform to send out a strong message so we’ll be doing the same [as Rangers].”
And in the warm-up, Celtic captain Scott Brown made his way over to Kamara to embrace his rival before the game began.
On Saturday, the midfielder revealed the extent of the abuse he received and said UEFA must ‘stop the tokenism and take a zero-tolerance approach.’
“As a player I do not expect myself, nor any other to have to tolerate racial hatred on or off the pitch in 2021,” he said.
England and Borussia Dortmund midfielder was the latest high-profile player to be targeted by vile racists and the 17-year-old has received the full backing of his club and national football association.
Bellingham had played in Dortmund’s 2-2 draw at Bundesliga rivals Cologne on Saturday afternoon before sharing a screenshot on Instagram.
The post showed a number of comments on an earlier post which were highlighted by Bellingham, including monkey and faeces emojis.
He posted the replies with a short message which read: “Just another day on social media…”
Back in Glasgow, though, the focus for players is on remaining unbeaten as fans continue to celebrate title no.55.
The Ibrox faithful who packed the streets to celebrate the triumph were widely condemned and both clubs released messages urging supporters to stay home and be safe.
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