No more 'take the knee': Why England should 'Tap the Testicle'

Tomorrow, England play their first World Cup game, taking on Croatia in Dallas.

Since 2020, the England national team has demonstrated admirable anti-racism, choosing to 'take the knee' at kick-off throughout the 2021, 2022 and 2024 international tournaments.

Their female compatriots also took the knee, but stopped during their successful 2025 European Championship campaign following online racism against defender Jess Carter.

According to England Manager, Sarina Wiegman, the gesture was stopped because it was "not good enough", and that it was "clear we and football need to find another way to tackle racism".

The desire for 'another way to tackle racism' reflects a belief common amongst Black Lives Matter activists that 'taking the knee' has become a lazy gesture of compliance with social norms rather than any threat to the system of white supremacy.

The recent "Show You're Shit" campaign was a daring upgrade to 'take the knee', but has some natural disadvantages when deployed as a gesture on a football field.

The 2026 World Cup is the perfect platform to pilot such 'another way to tackle racism'. It is not only the global event of the year, but it primarily occurs in Donald Trump's America, which has become a by-word for the white supremacy which slayed George Floyd and initiated the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

We need a new anti-racist symbol to showcase at the World Cup.  

Something to finally make the white world uncomfortable enough to notice.

We need to go further than just 'taking the knee'.

We need to go not just further but higher.  

We need to ‘tap the testicle’.  

This may sound vulgar, even offensive, but we are not going to confront white supremacy by maintaining the colonial facade of so-called 'civilised values'.

I want you to imagine the following spectacle as England face Croatia on Wednesday.

As the whistle blows, the entire England team game makes a gesture of anti-racist unity. Imagine Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Marc Guehi and Reece James pulling down their shorts and tapping their testicles in front of the entire world. Imagine these fit black athletes with their thick legs and bulging muscles pulling down their shorts and tapping their testicles. 

I know I have……. 

The scene will cause shock and horror in the bars and living rooms across the planet.

It will be the boldest and most in-your-face statement against white supremacy ever undertaken on our shared planet. In the land of the KKK, we will inspire the world by the powerful moral imagery of TTT (tap the testicle).

The gesture will reverberate around the world and inspire localised TTT initiatives amongst communities committed to anti-racist praxis. I look forward to walking around Peckham on Thursday morning and seeing my local multi-ethnic community freely tapping the testicle as a symbol of anti-racist activism.

The England squad now faces a choice.

They can continue with tired symbolic gestures which nobody notices anymore, or they can seize their place in history.

On Wednesday evening, the cameras will be ready.

Billions of people will be watching, some of whom will be racist.

One of them no doubt will be Donald Trump, sitting smugly in the White House, expecting another routine football match.

Imagine his face when eleven England players simultaneously reach into their shorts in a coordinated act of anti-racist solidarity and unleash a new anti-racist gesture which this time no one can possibly ignore.

Taking the knee may have caught the attention of the world, but was not a gesture to dismantle white supremacy. The tapping of the testicle will cause outrage, even disgust, amongst the enemies of justice, diversity and equity.

Let tomorrow be the moment English football finally taps into its true power.

Tap for racial justice.

Tap for equality.

Tap the Testicle.