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.

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?

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.

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.

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 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’.