Millwall fans respectfully observe players taking a knee

LONDON (AP) — Three days after jeering teams who took a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, fans of English soccer club Millwall respectfully observed the same gesture made by players before another match in the second-tier Championship.

Upon entering the stadium ahead of their team’s home game against Queens Park Rangers, Millwall’s supporters received a printed statement that read: “The eyes of the world are on this football club tonight — your club — and they want us to fail.”

That was after booing was heard from some Millwall fans as players from the London club and Derby took a knee before their game on Saturday.

On Tuesday, Millwall’s players were applauded when they lined up holding a banner which read “Inequality — united for change”. As previously announced, they linked arms — instead of taking a knee — and wore the logo of anti-discrimination group Kick It Out on the front of their jerseys.

QPR players opted to take a knee, having chosen in recent weeks not to make the gesture as they felt it only diluted the BLM movement. There were no audible jeers from Millwall’s supporters.

Players in English soccer have continued to take a knee this season to show support for the fight against discrimination following the death of George Floyd in the United States. Floyd, a Black man in handcuffs, died May 25 after a white police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck as he said he couldn’t breathe.

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