10/12/2020
Sky News and the Midland's LGBTQ station Gorgeous FM along with specialist sports outlets like Talksport UK were among those giving prominent of Saturday to the shocking behaviour of a small but extremely loud section of fans of the football club Millwall. They booed and screamed abuse as players – black and white, made anti-racist gestures inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. Former Wycombe Wanderers player Marcus Bean tweeted: "We all know Millwall's history but it still shocked andupset me hearing the booing... Even more disturbing it sounded like the majority of fans to me”. Bean was referring to the fact that Millwall was heavily penetrated by racists during the nineteen seventies, a period when English racism was at all time high, and various gangs, thugs and neo-Nazis used football matches to appeal to heterosexual macho men. Even Wikipedia notes “In the media, Millwall's supporters have often been associated with hooliganism, with numerous films having been made fictionalising their notoriety.” For those too young to remember, football hooliganism of largely English and some Scottish supporters tarnished the reputation of the UK in international and domestic football and led to death and destruction such as at the Heysel Stadium disaster in Belgium in May 1985. Many improvements to the beautiful game have taken place over the years, including funded anti-racism and anti-nazi campaign groups. There are also grass roots initiatives such as the Gay Football Suppoters Network and Football Fans Against Homophobia. But racism and bigotry remains a problem in many English clubs and is closely monitored by anti-facist groups such as Searchlight Magazine, Hope Not Hate and Bristol Antifascists to quote but a few. Women's Football Leagues have problems with racism, but with more openly lesbian and bisexual players, the issue is not nearly as problematic as with male football. Of course, there have been those within the LGBTQ communities who have argued whether football is even worthwhile anywhere. The late gay cultural theorist and journalist Richard Smith once recalled the alliance of gay, disabled and drop out schoolkids who defied masculine teachers to sit out football matches making daisy chains, which he saw as a kind of cultural resistance to the hegemony of heterosexuality and football.
https://www.kickitout.org/news/discrimination-in-football-on-the-rise
