August 11th 2023.
Vincent Kompany was disappointed to hear boos when the Burnley players took the knee before their Premier League return, but he insists the club is making progress. The gesture has been used since the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests, and the Premier League captains released a statement unifying their belief that discrimination has no place in football, or wider society.
Kompany, who is a Manchester City legend, was unhappy to hear the reaction from the crowd but believes the amount of booing is a lot less than it used to be. He said: “Of course I can’t be happy with it, I’m not happy with it. The colour of my skin should make it clear why I’m not. Let’s be honest, it’s not something new. It’s not something that has happened for the first time.”
He continued, “But the amount of people that booed is a lot, lot less than it used to be. These people are part of our family so we need to work together to change the mentalities. I know it was a lot worse before, it’s a fraction of what it used to be. It’s still not good enough but we’re making progress.”
Despite being denied a dream return to the top-flight as Manchester City kick-started their title defence with a routine 3-0 win, Kompany was still positive about his side’s performance. He said, “We had five guys starting for the first time for the club, one guy starting his first debut in his career…Overall we had chances, we knew it was going to be tough so I think we need to take the positives from this game. You can’t feel good with a defeat, but I have seen enough to know we have made progress since the last time we played them. This is going to be the worst we play this season, this team is only going to get stronger.”
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