The Lionesses have adopted a different gesture to show their support for Jess Carter after she received online racist abuse during the Euro 2025. The England women's national team decided to stand, rather than take the knee, before their semi-final match against Italy on Tuesday, July 22, 2025.

The decision comes after Carter revealed that she had been subjected to "a lot of racial abuse" since the beginning of the tournament and would be taking a break from social media. The abuse suffered by Carter has sparked anger and sadness within the England camp. The Football Association is working with UK police to identify those responsible for the hateful posts.

The Lionesses have been taking the knee before matches to raise awareness of racism and discrimination. However, the team felt that they needed to find a different way to tackle racism. "Taking the knee, that's not enough," said Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman. "We have done that for a while. The impact is not good enough, it's not as big as we think." Wiegman added, "When there is this form of racism we felt we have to do something else, something different, so that's why we are not taking the knee." Georgia Stanway, Carter's teammate, supports the decision to abandon the gesture, saying, "We think that is a way of making change in itself (refusing to take the knee) because we want to get people talking - we want to tell people that what is being done isn't enough."

Instead of taking the knee, Carter and her fellow substitutes stood together on the touchline arm-in-arm as a new gesture of solidarity against racism as the game got underway. The Lionesses' decision not to take the knee has led to some criticism, with anti-discrimination group Fare expressing their disappointment. However, anti-discrimination group Kick It Out backed the players' decision and called on social media companies to do more to combat racist abuse.

Italy's head coach Andrea Soncin has expressed his solidarity with Jess Carter, saying that his side stands in "maximum solidarity" with her and that "any type of violence is not accepted, cannot be tolerated". He also acknowledged the "huge responsibility" that comes with their role to send positive and educational messages, especially to children.