BOOS ring out at Champions League final as Chelsea and Man City players take a knee before kick-off (VIDEO)

Jeers and whistles were heard ringing out as players and match officials took the knee before the Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester City in Porto.

The Premier League rivals are meeting in only the third ever all-English final in Europe’s biggest club game at the Estadio do Dragao in Portugal.

Chelsea are aiming for a second Champions League triumph in their history in their third appearance in the continental showpiece, while City are making a maiden appearance at this stage of the competition.

Around 16,500 spectators were allowed into the Estadio do Dragao in Porto on Saturday night, including 6,000 fans from each club.

After a season in which fans have mostly been starved of watching football in the stands due to Covid restrictions, the support was predictably raucous from both sides beforehand – but also included some uncomfortable boos for the organizers.

The first jeers were heard with the playing of the Champions League anthem, perhaps most prominently from the City fans.

They have a tepid relationship with European football governing body UEFA stemming from numerous grievances down the years, not least when the club was slapped with a two-year ban – later overturned – for alleged breaches of Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

More jeers and whistles were heard when the players and match officials customarily took a knee before the game got underway, continuing to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Some online pointed the finger at the Chelsea fans as being the section from which the booing emanated.

Taking a knee has become a controversial topic in English football. When fans returned to stadiums in limited numbers earlier this season, sections of the support at Championship club Millwall and elsewhere were heard jeering at the gesture.

That prompted threats of bans for supporters booing the step, although some high-profile names such as Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha – who is black – has said that the gesture is “degrading” and has done little to chance the situation with footballers receiving racist abuse online.  

Some fan groups have voiced their dissatisfaction at the gesture being associated the BLM movement, which in political terms is seen as radically left-wing.