Marc Guehi claimed that taking the knee could have lost its meaning as an anti-racism message after not taking part in the gesture on Saturday.The Manchester City and England defender stood instead of kneeling before their win over Ipswich Town, whose defender Issa Diop also took the same stance on a ‘No Room For Racism’ weekend.Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Rayan and Tyler Adams all chose to remain standing at their matches, with fans at Elland Road jeering Leeds United and Manchester United stars who chose to kneel.Guehi admitted that he is unsure on the racism campaign as a whole, adding that ‘maybe’ taking the knee has a diminishing impact.‘I’ve not been taking the knee for a while now,’ Guehi said. ‘I’ll always clap just because of what it signifies. But in terms of if something can be done? Hopefully. Hopefully we can do a bit more but we will see.’Guehi added: ‘More can be done. More can always be done. We’ll have to see how we move the campaign along.‘I don’t think it’s necessarily a football issue, I think it’s a wider societal issue and football is that beacon of hope to try to get the message out. We’ll try, hopefully with the PFA and the league, to see what can be done.’Meanwhile, Guehi is the latest City player to back the club in their appeal of guilty verdicts for serious breaches of financial rules.‘The club have been nothing but fantastic with me,’ he said. ‘I just want to be someone that is part of the future success. But you just get the sense from everyone at the football club that it’s a family football club.‘People love one another and just want to do the best for each other. We have a lot of trust and belief in the football club and what’s been going on here.’ Marc Guehi fears that taking the knee as an anti-racism gesture may have lost its meaning Guehi did not perform the gesture while his Man City team-mates took the knee on SaturdayLeeds United manager Daniel Farke has also explained why his striker Calvert-Lewin chose not to take the knee ahead of Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United.’Dom is more or less like, “No, I don’t go down. I show my respect by standing up.” Every individual is different and shows respect for this campaign in a different way,’ he said, defending the forward after his goal earned Leeds a 1-1 draw at Elland Road.’It’s definitely a good campaign and a good topic that football and sports, in general, support situations like this because a dressing room is a perfect example of how we should all live together.’Different passports, different languages, different religions, but they are all together as human beings and friends who work together toward one target. This is how the world should be.’Parts of Elland Road loudly booed as players took the knee ahead of Leeds’ clash with Manchester United, amid fears the gesture has lost its impact since its introduction during the Covid-19 pandemic.It is not the first time players have refused to take the knee. Last year Calvert-Lewin did so in Burnley’s fixture with Leeds, while Crysencio Summerville has been known to take the same action. Former Premier League star Wilfried Zaha previously explained why he objected to the gesture in 2021, saying: ‘I feel like taking the knee is degrading, because growing up my parents just let me know that I should be proud to be black no matter what and I feel like we should just stand tall.’When Marcos Alonso was at Chelsea, he opted to point to the Premier League’s ‘No Room For Racism’ badge on his arm rather than join his fellow players. Two Bournemouth players stood while their team-mates took the knee against Sunderland Ahead of the 2021-22 season, Luton indicated that they would not be taking the knee and instead all stood in the centre circle. At that stage, players were still taking the knee ahead of every game – but that policy was stopped in August 2022. Instead, a decision was made to limit the gesture to match rounds falling during the No Room For Racism initiative. It was agreed ahead of the season among Premier League captains that they would continue to perform the gesture twice per season. Players and staff have the opportunity to perform the pre-match gesture for the next two gameweeks in October, with the Premier League reiterating ‘the commitment to tackling discrimination and highlight the importance of diversity in football’. The move started in the UK in 2020 following the death of George Floyd in US police custody, which sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.