UP until Saturday, there had been plenty of genuine, well-meaning debate over whether footballers should still be taking the knee.
To have been at Villa Park in June, for the Premier League’s restart, when this action was first taken at an English football ground, was to experience an unmistakably significant moment.
Some fans booed as Millwall players took the kneeCredit: Getty Images – Getty
The impact was powerful and the message clear — unity against racial discrimination. Yet when does such a show of solidarity, repeated over months, lose its meaning?
When does taking the knee become a box-ticking gesture, no more important than another social-media hashtag?
Was it self-defeating for the BBC to continue showing players taking the knee before the highlights of each Premier League match?
Were even supportive people becoming bored by it?
Were they beginning to feel resentful that a message was being rammed down their throats?
I didn’t feel that way but I respected the argument.
And I certainly respected Les Ferdinand, the former England striker who is director of football at Queens Park Rangers, one of the few professional clubs which consistently employs black people in positions of off-field authority.
Sir Les, a man so admired he carries English football’s only unofficial knighthood, was rightly bristling at criticism directed at QPR when their players decided not to take the knee at the start of the season.
Ferdinand said: “The taking of the knee has reached a point of ‘good PR’ but little more than that. The message has been lost.
“Taking the knee will not bring about change — actions will.
“Our Under-18s were forced to abandon a game in August 2019 against (Spanish club) AD Nervion FC due to racist abuse.
“More than 12 months on, Uefa refused to deal with the situation and the Spanish FA did nothing.”
Yet the actions of Millwall fans in booing the taking of the knee, when 2,000 were readmitted to The Den for Saturday’s match against Derby, showed us why this act of defiance must continue.
All eyes will be on Millwall after the small-minded actions of a few fansCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Just imagine the mindset which allows somebody to think ‘ haven’t been to the match for nine months, the first thing I want to do is boo the concept of racial equality’.
Tonight QPR visit Millwall and the two clubs have agreed to link arms instead.
Players may still take the knee — and kudos to anyone who does because, while such pondlife still infects football and wider society, the need for action remains.
This is not just a Millwall problem, though.
Remember the boneheads of the Burnley Air Force flying a ‘White Lives Matter’ banner over the Etihad, only to be shot down verbally by the club’s excellent captain Ben Mee?
And this weekend there was also booing of players taking the knee at Colchester, whose chairman Robbie Cowling has offered to refund season-ticket money to supporters who cannot at least respectfully tolerate the action.
Some Burnley fans shockingly flew this banner over Turf MoorCredit: Reuters
But it would be ridiculous to suggest Millwall do not have a deep-seated problem with racism.
The club were fined last year after racist chanting in an FA Cup match against Everton and the response of their supporters’ group to Saturday’s booing pandered to the ‘I’m Not Racist But . . . ’ mentality.
Some Millwall supporters suggest they were booing Marxism rather than anti-racism, due to apparent links between the Black Lives Matter movement and far-left politics.
As if professional footballers are all Marxist sympathisers, or are stupid enough to be duped into supporting such ideas. Not likely.
Some continue to claim sport and politics should never mix — always a strange idea but stranger than ever after Marcus Rashford’s extraordinary success in campaigning against child poverty.
Liam Rosenior — who, like Rashford, seems a far more eloquent politician than any of our actual politicians — gave an excellent interview on the issue on Sunday.
The Derby coach, who is helping to choose the next FA chairman but should just appoint himself, called out cabinet minister George Eustice for pedalling the myth that taking the knee was linked to Marxism.
Rosenior suggested Millwall fans might even have done us a favour by refocusing minds against ignorance and prejudice.
And supporters of Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool widely applauded the taking of the knee this weekend, presumably in direct response to events at The Den.
Because taking the knee will only become a meaningless gesture once racism is eradicated from football and society.
And Millwall fans have reminded us there are still plenty of thick skulls we need to penetrate.
Mour in tank
I’VE spent the last two Sunday afternoons watching Gareth Bale’s back as Tottenham’s Galactico warmed up directly in front of me throughout the derbies with Chelsea and Arsenal.
On neither occasion did Bale get on, as Jose Mourinho’s men executed their game-plan perfectly.
Gareth Bale will likely get more opporutnities as the season goes onCredit: Reuters
Although Bale managed to obstruct Kieran Tierney from taking a throw in the second half of the North London derby.
Bale’s arrival transformed the mood around White Hart Lane after their opening-day defeat by Everton.
Yet the Real Madrid loanee has started only one Premier League match, at West Brom a month ago, and has not played a minute of domestic football since.
At the moment we’re not sure whether Bale remains a world-class player — although he is still capable of sprinting backwards and forwards over short distances and stretching a lot.
But he might still be the ace up Mourinho’s sleeve in a title race Tottenham’s manager refuses to acknowledge his team are even part of.
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER claims Manchester United are one of the most consistent teams in the Premier League.
They are certainly consistently awful at home, while in away matches they are consistently awful in the first half and consistently brilliant in the second half.
And Paul Pogba is consistently making transfer requests.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is taking time getting things to click at UnitedCredit: PA:Press AssociationBEFORE his double against West Brom, Christian Benteke had managed just six goals in three seasons for Crystal Palace.
Yet he still makes the Belgium squad, ranked No 1 in the world by Fifa, and is still often selected by as experienced a manager as Roy Hodgson.
It is almost as if there is more to being a modern-day centre forward than scoring goals.
Yet in Benteke’s case, few people ever seem to acknowledge that.
AFTER scoring five goals in a week, is Olivier Giroud being referred to as ‘underrated’ so often that he is almost in danger of becoming overrated?
KOP MADE ME RADIO GA GA
THERE are many things to enjoy about supporters being back at the football.
There are radio presenters falling silent to allow us to hear The Kop singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ with ‘lumps in our throats’ and telling us ‘this means more’ to Liverpool fans and what a ‘knowledgeable crowd’ they are at Anfield.
But, like I said, there are also many things to enjoy about supporters being back at the football.
VARD NOT TO LOVE HIM
IF ever a single moment could sum up a particular footballer perfectly it had to be Jamie Vardy, a boyhood Sheffield Wednesday fan, scoring a breakaway 90th-minute winner against Sheffield United then celebrating by demolishing a corner flag.
What a glorious little toerag he is. Bet you wish he was on your team.
Watch Jamie Vardy score after slaloming run from own half for non-league side Stocksbridge Park Steels versus FC United of Manchester More
