Bayern Munich players wearing #BlackLivesMatter armbands
Players of defending Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich on Saturday wore 'Black Lives Matter' armbands during their league match against Bayer Leverkusen to express solidarity following the death of Goerge Floyd last month.
Bayern has so far become the most high-profile club to stand in the protest as thousands had gathered in Berlin regarding the same.
Prior to the game, the players had warmed up in t-shirts with '#BlackLivesMatter' written along with the slogan of the club's official "Reds Against Racism" campaign.
"FC Bayern stands for a world in which racism, discrimination, hate, injustice and violence have no place. The death of George Floyd and the images from the USA have shocked us all," said club president Herbert Hainer in a statement.
"It's a matter of actively and loudly showing our colours. Black Lives Matter and Reds Against Racism. We stand for togetherness that goes far beyond sports."
Earlier at the beginning of the month, four young soccer players in Germany’s Bundesliga addressed the death of George Floyd in the United States with protests against police brutality and calls for justice over the weekend.
England’s 20-year-old winger Jadon Sancho, 21-year-old Morocco right-back Achraf Hakimi and 22-year-old Marcus Thuram made statements on the field on Sunday, following the example set by Schalke’s American midfielder Weston McKennie, 21, on May 31.
Sancho scored his first hat trick in Borussia Dortmund’s 6-1 win at Paderborn with no fans present, but removed his jersey after his first goal to reveal a T-shirt with the handwritten message “Justice for George Floyd” on the front.
(with AP inputs)
