Micah Richards calls for "real punishment" on Millwall fans after "disheartening" booing at knee

Millwall fans boeed when their team took the knee at the Den ahead of their Championship game against Derby County

Posted Sunday, December 06, 2020 by Dailystar.co.uk

Micah Richards has called for "some real punishment" after some Millwall fans booed as their team took the knee ahead of their game against Derby County.

It was the first time supporters have been allowed to attend a match at The Den since the summer as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with 2,000 fans present for the game.

Players and staff across the country have been taking a knee before games for months in support of the Black Lives Matter movement but a significant number of Millwall supporters booed the gesture.

Speaking on BBC Final Score, Richards called for the fans who booed to be punished, saying: “It’s just disheartening. How do these fans get allocated to go to the games?

Colin Kazim-Richards of Derby stands with a fist raised towards members of the Millwall crowd

"There are 2000 and you can actually pinpoint these people who are going now, so they’ve got no excuses. I’m sick to death of talking about this situation to be honest, how someone can get in the ground and boo the Black Lives Matter, which to me is racist.

"It’s just so disheartening because we’ve come so far but we’ve got so far to go. I don’t even like talking about it because it falls on deaf ears time and time and time again. If they’re going to mention it and put out a statement, let’s see some real punishment.

"I don’t want to see ‘Millwall slapped with a ten grand fine’ or ‘it was only certain parts’. Well these are the diehard fans because they’ve managed to get to the game!

"They know exactly who it is, they need to be punished, and I’m sick to deaf of talking about it. I come here to enjoy football and we’re talking about this. But we have to, because it’s in our game, which is a problem."

Dion Dublin, who played five games for Millwall back in 2002, was alongside Richards on Final Score and added: "I’ve been a Millwall player, for half a season maybe, and I know what the club’s like and what the club is trying to do.

"It’s always the minority, it’s always a little minority at football clubs which you can hear, especially when there are so few fans in the ground.

"The question I would have to ask is why are they booing. To me, they are racist, they’re racist people, they don’t agree with taking the knee, which means they’re racist. They don’t agree with Black Lives Matter. That means they’re racist to me.

"That says to me that the minority of Millwall fans are spoiling it for a football club that’s going in the right direction with a tag they’ve had for years and years and years, they’re trying to eradicate it and are doing all the right things, but you can’t speak for everybody."