Two more Premier League players remain standing as taking the knee draws boos at Leeds

WATCH NOW: Nana Akua discusses footballers taking the knee. The incidents followed three players choosing not to take the knee during Saturday's fixtures as the league marked its No Room For Racism campaign.

Everton's Ainsley Maitland-Niles stayed upright before the meeting with Chelsea, while Marc Guehi and Issa Diop did likewise ahead of Manchester City's match against Ipswich. Players are being given the opportunity to perform the gesture across two October gameweeks as part of the league's efforts to challenge discrimination.

Rayan and Adams did not kneel alongside their Bournemouth team-mates before facing Sunderland, while the booing came at Elland Road as Leeds prepared to host United. The reasons behind the players' decisions have not been disclosed.

However, the developments come amid a debate within football over whether taking the knee remains an effective way of confronting abuse. Wilfried Zaha previously explained his objection in 2021, saying: "I feel like taking the knee is degrading, because growing up my parents just let me know that I should be proud to be black no matter what and I feel like we should just stand tall.

Other players have chosen different ways to express their support. During his Chelsea career, Marcos Alonso pointed towards the No Room For Racism badge on his sleeve instead of kneeling.

The gesture became widespread in English football in 2020 following George Floyd's death in US police custody and the subsequent global anti-racism protests. Premier League players initially knelt before every match, before that approach changed in August 2022 to focus on selected occasions.

The issue also divided opinion during England's Euro 2025 campaign, when the Lionesses stopped kneeling before their semi-final against Italy after defender Jess Carter suffered racist abuse online. Captain Lucy Bronze explained that the squad questioned whether the gesture was delivering a powerful message.

It's about putting another statement out there to say, it's something that still is a problem, it's something that still needs to be put right," she said. "More needs to be done in football, more needs to be done in society.

What that is right now as an individual, I don't exactly know." But Piara Powar, head of anti-discrimination organisation Fare, challenged the connection between that abuse and abandoning the gesture.