Source: Matthew Ashton – AMA / Getty
After 102 days of hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Premier League is making its return to play.
During their return to play, clubs will be showing their support to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, and some will be donning their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
All clubs that are in the Premier League will be wearing an NHS patch on the chest, with a BLM patch on the sleeve. Arsenal and Sheffield United took things a step further, and instead of the players’ last names being printed on the back, they’ve decided to make an even bigger statement by putting the phrase Black Lives Matter instead.
It has been widely reported that all 20 clubs that participating in the PL will replace the names, though only Arsenal and Sheffield have confirmed by posting the clean new jerseys on their respective Twitter pages.
The games kicked off today, so you didn’t have to wait long to see them in action.
Sheffield’s match against Manchester City already kicked off. When the referees blew the whistle to signal the start of the game, everyone on the field — referees included — dropped to a knee for several seconds before rising together as the match began.
“Sheffield United and Aston Villa were proud to stand in solidarity with the actions of the players and coaching staff of both football clubs during the first ten seconds of tonight’s Premier League fixture, expressing our collective support for the Black Lives Matter movement,” read a joint statement from both clubs.
These jerseys need to drop for public release, particularly the Sheffield jerseys.
