All eyes were on The Den on Tuesday evening as Millwall took on London rivals, Queens Park Rangers.
After Lions fans had booed their own players for taking the knee in their previous home match against Derby County, there was an air of uncertainty in south London as to whether it would happen again.
Given the high profile nature of the fall out after the game against Derby, Millwall’s board were rightly concerned, and made sure that a leaflet was handed out to all supporters attending the game.
Whilst the content was informative, to end it with ‘they want us to fail’ pandered to the siege mentality of football supporters and took away from the actual message they were trying to convey.
Thankfully for all concerned, there was no repeat of the previous incident.
Millwall giving this to all 2000 fans on arrival. pic.twitter.com/PV1JwgdhLf
— Jonathan Overend (@jsoverend) December 8, 2020
I think the ‘want us to fail’ message was due to the over the top media coverage given just to Millwall. Other teams booed including one from the premiership but that received about 1% of the coverage Millwall got. Millwall are an easy target, whilst the media, especially Sky will do anything to protect their brand. You can almost feel the disappointed that LBC, Sky and many other outlets are showing at having nothing to report
It is about time that the football authorities starting communicating with their biggest customer, the football fan.
If discrimination in football and life in general is to be overcome, then get the fans involved and have an agreed pathway that everyone can get behind.