Millwall Fans Deserve More Respect When speaking to my black or Muslim friends they often say “you don’t know how it feels being prejudged all the time”... Well actually I do. Being a Millwall fan for nearly 20 years you have to grow thick skin with the constant negative bombardment from the media, fans and the general public. Telling someone you support Millwall gets the same reaction as if you told them Hitler was your idol. Why? Because we a prejudged. They do not care about our charity work or community work, they only hear what they read in The Sun. There’s where the problem lies. We are told that we shouldn’t believe Muslims are terrorists, that all Japanese people aren’t Samurai warriors and that all black people are muggers... Yet it seems OK to say that all Millwall fans are branded racist thugs when we are clearly not. Where do these people get their evidence from? From the 1985 Luton riot? Well most of those Millwall “fans” are coming up to retirement! The 2001 Birmingham riots? Well we know that the riot was started by non-Millwall fans. We are clearly labelled from the old firms era, which was the basis for that wonderful film Green Street. But this cannot be either as we know West Ham and Cardiff were far more notorious for being thuggish, yet they are paraded in the media as the darlings of the division. The board have tried for decades to get rid of this awful reputation. As a result things have changed at Millwall. The majority of the thugs have been banned from the ground. We don’t get the racist comments shouted out at the games nor do we have the fighting. We have less arrests than most clubs in the division and we have won awards for diversity awareness and community work. The fans have joined in. We have gained a bigger, more diverse fan base. We are friendlier than ever before (which is a good or a bad thing depending on who you speak to). Our players are not dirty nor do they cheat by holding their faces trying to get others sent off. We are a team with integrity; if you are part of the youth set up you WILL go to school, you WILL do well and you WILL respect match officials. If you choose not to then you are out even if you’re tipped to be the next Messi. Our manager never slags off referees or opposition staff. We diplomatically solve any problems and we are not afraid to punish those in the wrong (10 year ban for that plonker who brought in the turkey flag to the Leeds game). None of this gets into the media and therefore the public still believe in the 1980s hysteria that is Millwall hooligans. On Twitter I am constantly bombarded with idiots who refer to Millwall fans as “scum of the Earth” “They should all be put down” etc etc. We have never booed throughout a minutes silence (Leeds & Chelsea fans). We have never sang hurtful songs about disasters in the thousands (Leeds fans again)(I do admit that a minority do sing “Istanbal” at Leeds game, which is wrong). We do not smash up stadiums and try and riot on the pitch (West Ham fans). We do not stab other rival fans as they make their way to the stadium with their family (West Ham fans again). So are we really the worse set of fans in English football? Who is to blame? The media? The FA? FIFA? Millwall for not publishing our achievements more regularly? No. It’s ignorance. The same ignorance for believing that all Asians are suicide bombers. That’s just prejudgement based on skin colour. Saying that all Millwall fans are “benefit cheating, wife beating scum of the Earth” is just the same; prejudgement based on the colour of our shirt. Millwall fans go about their daily lives without making trouble. Those firm days are over. People will have to get used to this family club style now and pick on someone else. A fan base that deserves the title of “Scum Of The Earth” because Millwall fans do not deserve it any more. We deserve a bit more respect. Read more at www.TotalMillwall.co.uk