Booing players taking a knee is not racist, says Milwall fans group

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

Fans of the London club were condemned by the Football Association (FA), 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 said held "extreme political views".

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

"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 following 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.

Junior Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly said on Monday that while he had "concerns and criticisms" about BLM as an organisation, he thought kneeling in support of those fighting against racism was right.

"It is absolutely wrong for football fans to boo players, or indeed anybody else doing so," Cleverly told the BBC.

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."