{"id":222289,"date":"2020-12-06T09:10:13","date_gmt":"2020-12-06T09:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=222289"},"modified":"2020-12-08T07:25:51","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T07:25:51","slug":"fa-and-efl-condemn-millwall-fans-for-booing-as-players-take-a-knee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=222289","title":{"rendered":"FA and EFL condemn Millwall fans for booing as players take a knee"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Will Unwin \u2013 The Guardian Dec 5, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zMGn4MjHKVs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n&#8212;<\/div>\n<p>There was widespread condemnation on Saturday of the behaviour of Millwall supporters who marked their return to the Den by booing as players took a knee before their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/championship\">Championship<\/a> match against Derby.<\/p>\n<p>Fans were back in the stadium for the first time since 29 February but their return was quickly mired in controversy. Booing from the stands was clearly heard after the referee, Darren England, blew his whistle for the players to take a knee, a gesture used to show support for the fight against discrimination following the unlawful killing of George Floyd in America.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/fa\">The FA<\/a> said it \u201csupports all players and staff who wish to take a stand against discrimination in a respectful manner, which includes taking of the knee, and strongly condemns the behaviours of any spectators that actively voice their opposition to such activities\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>There had been fears before the match that a section of supporters would stage a protest, with some calling on the team to stop making the gesture because of its links to the Black Lives Matter movement and politicisation. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/millwall\">Millwall<\/a> rejected those calls, saying the club remains \u201cfully supportive of the efforts to rid sport, and society, of all forms of discrimination \u2026 Taking the knee, for us, is in no way representative of any agreement with political messaging or ideology. It is purely about tackling discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Our response to today&#39;s incident at Millwall. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/129BS270N0\">pic.twitter.com\/129BS270N0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kick It Out (@kickitout) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kickitout\/status\/1335280655215767552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 5, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The booing sparked outrage, with Derby\u2019s Colin Kazim-Richards calling it an \u201cabsolute disgrace\u201d, and Millwall\u2019s manager, Gary Rowett, saying: \u201cThe players have come out and said they don\u2019t support the political aspect, but they do support the anti-discrimination aspect of it \u2026 The club does an enormous amount of work on anti-racism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Derby\u2019s interim manager, Wayne Rooney, who secured his first win with a 1-0 victory at the Den, said: \u201dWith everything that has been going on in recent months, it was very surprising. I don\u2019t want to say much about it, but all I can say is that everyone at Derby took the knee, and no one condones that behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sanjay Bhandari, chair of Kick It Out, praised the players for \u201cdefying the hate shown by some fans. What this demonstrates is that players are right to continue standing up to discrimination, whether that is through taking the knee or speaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The EFL said it would \u201ccontinue to support any players and clubs who choose to take the knee in support of tackling inequality in society.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are disappointed that a small group of supporters have today chosen to voice their opposition to such activities directly aimed at raising awareness of the fight against racism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe remain committed to working with our clubs, including Millwall, who undertake a significant amount of work on equality and inclusion initiatives, as we continue with our collective objective to eradicate all types of prejudiced behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2020\/dec\/05\/returning-fans-boo-as-millwall-and-derby-take-the-knee\">Source \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not everybody\u2019s buying into the established line about \u201cracism\u201d. Even as mouthpieces like the Guardian condemn them as \u201cracist\u201d, ordinary fans can see the sanctimonious hypocrisy behind such displays<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Race"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222289"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222293,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222289\/revisions\/222293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}