Were Millwall fans wrong to boo players who knelt in support of Black Lives Matter? Yes, according to the assembled pundits who are paid a fortune to talk about football.
‘Let’s be fair,’ wrote Gary Lineker, ‘it only appears to be a small minority of Millwall fans that didn’t boo the players taking the knee’. ‘Reality is Millwall fans booing players taking a knee doesn’t surprise many!!!,’ said Trevor Sinclair, the ex-footballer who pleaded guilty in 2018 to a racially aggravated public order offence after he abused a police officer. Dion Dublin, whose career as Homes Under the Hammer presenter has been a lot more productive than his brief spell at Man United, was perhaps the most outspoken:
‘They don’t agree with taking the knee, which means they are racist. They don’t agree with Black Lives Matter; that says they are racist to me.’
It would be naïve, of course, to suggest that those Millwall supporters who booed players for ‘taking the knee’ at the Den on Saturday did so having scrutinised the fine print of the BLM manifesto; it’s unlikely that they concluded that the proposal to defund the police was a step too far.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in