Millwall fan group says booing players taking a knee 'not racist'

Club said players would continue to take a knee before matches "to support the drive for change in society generally".

LONDON:

Millwall's official fan club have defended supporters who booed players taking a knee before the home match against Derby County at the weekend, saying they were not motivated by racism.

Fans of the London club were condemned by the Football Association (FA) and Kick it Out, a long-running campaign to rid the English game of racism, and many others after the incident at Saturday's Championship match.

Millwall said they were "dismayed and saddened" by the booing and that the club's players would continue to take a knee before matches "to support the drive for change, not just in football but in society generally".

A statement from the Millwall Supporters' Club on Sunday, however, said the boos were aimed at the 'Black Lives Matter' (BLM) organisation which, it added, held "extreme political views".

"We fervently believe that the motives of those behind the booing were not racist," it said in a statement.

"The greatest thing it highlighted is the need for clarity and understanding on both sides of this divide."

English players have been taking a knee before matches since June in support of the 'BLM' movement, which spread around the world in the wake of protests over the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis in May.

Both the Premier League and English Football League have since linked the kneeling gesture to their own anti-racism campaigns, including "No Room for Racism".

Queens Park Rangers director of football Les Ferdinand, a Black former England international, said in September that the gesture had "lost its meaning" and a YouGov opinion poll in October showed that 41% of fans disapproved of it continuing.

The Millwall Supporters' Club said Saturday's booing had been aimed solely at the 'BLM' movement. "These same fans have never booed the Kick It Out campaigns on our pitch or the huge work of the Millwall Community Trust and its many anti-racism campaigns," it added.

Kick It Out Chairman Sanjay Bhandari said the attempt to portray the booing as a "political disagreement" with 'BLM' was "complete and utter nonsense".

"Every time there is greater public focus on the fight against racial discrimination, there is always a backlash," he said.

"Racists rarely admit they are racists -- they try to hide their backlash under a seemingly respectable cloak."