Millwall Fans and Slavery
A very odd story today came to my attention today about Millwall fans and a game to commemorate the abolition of slavery (found via The Offside):
Millwall fans are ready to boycott their club’s friendly against Sierra Leone at The Den next month because it is being held to commemorate the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery.
The Daily Mail reports that Millwall fans seem to be upset that their club is being used as a “political football”.
A Millwall Supporters Club spokesman said: “I have been in touch the club and have asked why it was decided to use the game to celebrate the abolishment of slavery.
“I explained that all fans would agree with that but Millwall FC or its fans have no links with slavery at all. Slavery was abolished over 100 years before we were even founded, many fans see the association as our club being used as a political football.”
The last quote seems like a curious statement: why the defensive wording that “Millwall FC or its fans have no links with slavery at all”? Was someone actually suggesting that they did? I mean, I know they have a bad reputation, but I didn’t think anyone thought the Lion’s Den was once home to slaveholders.
And I always thought Millwall fans were proud that “no-one likes us, we don’t care”. So is this a reasonable protest about “political football”, or could it be taken as cover for something else?
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Thomas Dunmore
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The reason Millwall fans are getting upset about this has more to do with inference than anthing else.
It is a sad fact that because of their image as the archetypal hooligan club -and to many people all hooligans are racist which is frankly rediculous- whenever the issue of racism hits the press here in England, the name ‘Millwall’ will inevitably be mentioned at some point. This reinforces the perception that the club have a problem with racism when the truth is that they have done more to combat the problem than almost any other club in England. Something they receive little or no recognition for.
So when something like this comes along which ‘infers’ a link between the club and slavery, they get what we refer to as ‘the hump’.
Thanks for explaining that, certainly helps clear it up. But I just don’t see how there is such an inference. It’s patently absurd to link Millwall and slavery, isn’t it?
Would it not be better if Millwall fans used the game to showcase their efforts to combat racism instead? I would love to hear more from a Millwall fan to clarify the situation. Doubtless my tone was rather harsh in my post originally.
It is absurd, from the outside.
But to anyone who knows anything about the history of Millwall FC and in particular the way they are used and abused by the British media, the link and therefore the inference is obvious.
I spent some time reading a popular Millwall messageboard on this topic today. Obviously, that’s hardly an ideal source for balanced views, so my below comment has to be qualified.
But it seems to me the negative response of many fans has to do with their own politics as much as the inference about Millwall, judging from the responses there. Race and immmigration today come up repeatedly, along with a Daily Mail-style (note where the article was originally published) view of this commemoration epitomising “political correctness gone mad” and disgust at more harping on about Britain’s past connection to slavery, which should now be forgotten (or celebrated).
It seems like everyone is using the game as a “political football” right now – one might blame the promoters for originally attaching the game to the commemoration, I suppose, but I’m not sure anyone connected to it is looking too clever right now.
To be fair to Millwall, immigration and PC are two major issues in the UK right now and you’d find pretty similar posts on any board.
However, the point remains that Millwall have been beaten with the racism brush for years now, not simply by the PC brigade but also by the tabloid media and if you do that for long enough, sooner or later even the most mild-mannered people are going to cry enough.
The worry is that it’s things like this which not only reinforce the inferred link between the club and racism but actually open the door for those with extremist views to step in and take advantage.
BTW, did the books arrive?
Of course, I agree those issues aren’t restricted to Millwall fans by any means. I do think some fans are also politicising the event themselves for their own purposes by bringing up these issues, whilst still crying foul about a “political football”. But I take your point about the media’s treatment of Millwall fans.
I’ve gotten in touch with one of the Millwall supporters’ group leaders, so we’ll be presenting their views on the issue in full soon. A Daily Mail article isn’t likely to have presented the full story anyway, so I imagine that’ll clarify things a bit.
Nope, the books haven’t arrived yet…The post here is slow, though.
That’s a shame. There are some excellent examples of the media’s treatment of Millwall with regard to the racism issue in ‘Kicking Off’.
Look forward to reading it, Dougie (for those confused by our back and forth here, Dougie Brimson is the author of numerous books on football, including Kicking Off.)