16 April 2012
“No One Likes Us, We Don’t Care, We Are Millwall, Super Millwall, We Are Millwall From The Den!”
This chant was not just made up because it sounded good. This chant was created through years of being bullied by those in higher power. Everyone forgets that before WW2 Millwall was the second richest club in the country. We were going places. We had one of the best fan base in football. Yet again, another good thing that has gone wrong under the Millwall curse. WW2 struck and our players, fans and even our stadium were ripped apart by war. Passion, belief and a good sense of humour is what is needed to be a Millwall fan because you never know what is going to come and kick you in the groin, yet we are still here, we are surviving against all odds. Millwall FC are known as the scum of football, hooligans. No matter what we do, no matter how hard we all try, that label is in permanent ink and there is no way of scrubbing it off.
1985 vs Luton and 2001 vs Birmingham. Two games that will haunt us forever. Two aftermaths that will constantly be dragging Millwall down by the media and the football authorities. Those not old enough to remember, these are two games that ended up with Millwall “fans” rioting (I use the phrase “fans” as we cannot determine if they are all real Millwall supporters). Since 2001 the Millwall board have upped their game. Supporters were banned and Millwall were forced to implement membership only access to games. The result was that our attendances halved. Players were sold and Millwall were spiralling downwards with The FA and Football League licking their lips in anticipation hoping that Millwall FC would be no more. No! We fought back! We changed the way we were, rebranded Millwall FC from hooligans to a family club. Those who have been to The Den will know what I mean. The crowds are diverse, so many different colours, religions and genders. It’s fantastic! But the media was not happy with this. Any excuse they will use Millwall as a scapegoat for the problems in football. Violence in football? Use a clip of Millwall fans rioting. Simple. We’ve been branded after all No One Likes Us We Don’t Care. I remember reading an article in The Sun whilst we were in Division 2. It was by a black reporter who was on a mission to ruin Millwall’s name even more. It was at home versus Brighton. I was there that game. You could have counted the supporters from both sides. The reporter wrote something like “No Millwall fans would sit next to me, probably because I am black.” The next thing made me laugh “The Millwall fans were chanting Nazi chants ‘Sieg Heil’ throughout the game.” In fact it was Brighton fans chanting ‘Seagulls’ but this did not matter. People believed his story and yet again we were tarnished with the racism brush. In recent years Millwall FC have done wonders in the community. Like them or not, this new board has taken up from close to administration to only losing £200k a year yet still winning promotion to The Championship and two trips to Wembley. We were the first football team to be awarded with the Kick It Out award and Mkandawire was given an award for his outstanding community work. Where was this published? In local papers at best. We have less arrests then most league clubs per year and the club works tirelessly to improve what happens at games, including banning a fan for bringing a Turkish flag to the Leeds match. This is another issue. Half the fans are now divided. Half want to the club to focus on football and the other half wants to bring back to passion from The Firm type fan base. Even with our swift action and fans saying them don’t condone this thuggish behaviour on social networking sites we were being abused by Leeds fans for being disrespectful. The media picked up on this without bearing in mind that Leeds fans booed throughout George Best’s minute silence and continue to sing songs about the Munich air disaster without any punishment. Outrageous. Then we have West Ham. These fans can stab visiting supporters and smash up stadiums with only a few thousand pounds fines. With Trevor Brooking being the face of The FA West Ham will get away with murder and be their ‘rough little darlings’. We then get on to Liverpool. They have disgraced football with the Suarez fiasco. Suarez was found guilty and given an 8 match ban for racially abusing Patrice Evra. Instead of doing the decent thing and punish him Liverpool decided to back him with players wearing “Back Suarez” T-Shirts and Dalglish forever claiming that Suarez shouldn’t have been given a ban. So all the kids think it’s OK to be racist. And we won’t mention the fact that Liverpool’s fans’ disgraceful behaviour led to the death of numerous supporters at Hillsborough. Yet they are still loved and patted by The FA whilst Millwall collect fines for littering and swearing. I was talking to a Brazilian Millwall supporter (yes, we have those). He said that it was his dream to come to London and watch Millwall at The Den. His only worry; hooliganism. He said that the Brazilian media still use Millwall hooliganism clips to portray English football. The same day I spoke to a Danish Millwall fan who wanted to set up a Millwall Danish fan club but was worried it’ll attract nutters who have seen Green Street and the hooliganism clips. Millwall fans are being prejudged and never given a chance. I tell people who I support and it’s “Oh, so you’re hard” or “You’re a hooligan?!” Like most fans, I go to watch my team play and (hopefully) win. I am getting fed up of being prejudged and treated differently because I support my local team.
We then come to Barry Kitchener. A Millwall legend. A proper defender. Hard tackling, no nonsense, football loving defender. With 602 games for Millwall with 223 consecutive games under his belt you’d forgive me for thinking that when he dies there would be some mention of this great player in the media. Wrong. Kitchener was Millwall through and through. He only played for us, he only cared for us. This was his downfall in the eyes of the media. We’re forever reading about players who scored a famous goal in some 60s cup game for some FA loved team who died and we should all remember him. But not Kitchener, he was Millwall. Kitch was loved and when he died 8 days ago he brought the Millwall fans back together after a brief disagreement about the Turkey flag incident. The only mentions Kitch got in the national press was a few lines hidden in the papers and a brief mention when they read out the fixtures. He wasn’t even mentioned on Gillette Soccer Saturday or SoccerAM, and to rub salt into the wounds they had a show reel about retiring referee Peter Walton. One Millwall fan tweeted “If it was a Liverpool player who died they would have a bum fest.” And it’s true. Kitchener put in 110% effort in every game and surely he deserves at least a mention?! His family at least deserve to know that Kitch was a true legend.
Millwall have a common enemy; the referee. It doesn’t matter how good the referee is, as soon as they come down to The Den something happens, they can’t seem to give Millwall a decision. Millwall fans believe this is an FA conspiracy, surely referees aren’t that biased! Other fans laugh at us saying we’re using that as an excuse for our bad form. If the man in charge won’t give you the drippings from their nose, how can we perform well?! After every game our management have the good grace to get on with it without a fight, even though we’ve not been given stonewall penalties or their players not been shown red for a disgraceful challenge. When we do, we are fined by The FA whilst Warnock and friends constantly moan about referees for one decision that didn’t go their way. Boo-hoo. Try being a Millwall supporter.
This brings me to our conclusion. It is fair to say that Millwall are swimming against the waves. We are not liked by The FA, Football League, media and other fans. This is plain to see. Why aren’t we liked? Because they still hold a pre judgemental view of Millwall that we’re all ill-educated, racist hooligans. Maybe instead of singing No One Like Us We Don’t Care, maybe we should start caring and make people see what we really are; a great club to support.
No One Likes Us, We Should Care • Opuss № I