FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Premier League - West Bromwich Albion v Wolverhampton Wanderers - The Hawthorns, West Bromwich, Britain - May 3, 2021 West Bromwich Albion's Ainsley Maitland-Niles takes a knee before the match Pool via REUTERS/Shaun Botterill
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Soccer's European Championship kicks off on Friday with the 24 teams' battle for glory accompanied by off-field conflict over the anti-racism gesture of "taking the knee".
England were booed by some of their fans in two friendlies while Ireland were jeered in Hungary for kneeling before kickoff in a move borrowed from American NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and popularised by the Black Lives Matter movement.
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