We all need to be braver and create space for people in football to speak out
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. It’s a good line – an inspirational quote for a tea towel or a meme, very much the tea towels of the Instagram age.
The quote itself actually comes from John Stuart Mill’s inaugural address at St Andrews University in 1867: “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” It’s unlikely Mill was thinking of tea towels or memes when he said it. Nor you suspect was he referring to how Gary Rowett might be feeling a century and a half later. But the Millwall manager now finds himself in the unenviable position of being a good man looking on.
We received an email to the Football Weekly podcast from a Millwall fan after their game against Fulham at the New Den. A large number of home fans had booed the players taking the knee, and after the game Rowett suggested that the gesture was “causing a rift and divide” and that football needs “to find a better way to unify people”.
“I rather naively went to Twitter to voice my concerns and distance myself from the manager’s comments,” wrote our listener. “I was embarrassed by the fans’ behaviour and Gary Rowett’s comments.”
The social media responses he received from fellow Millwall fans who disagreed with him were unsurprisingly depressing: “It’s fucking embarrassing that people like you are affiliated with the club.” “If you think the problem is inside the club why don’t you stop supporting us.”
It wasn’t the abuse that affected our listener, but the idea of walking away from his team. “Losing the football club I spent my whole life supporting. I am 27 and first went to the Den 20 years ago with my Dad who is sadly no longer with us. I feel if I turn my back on the club after this, I’m also losing some sort of connection I had to him.”
The fan had always stood up for Millwall. “I do believe in the past we have been unfairly targeted. Many people have had a negative view about the club without knowing any of the positive things the club does, particularly in the local community. I no longer feel like this.”
I have little doubt that Rowett is a good person, but one who hasn’t got this right. As the chief executive of Kick It Out, Tony Burnett, said: “Some managers and clubs have shirked or deflected responsibility for fans booing players taking the knee.”
But at the same time I have sympathy for him. It is much easier from the safety of a Guardian column, or the comfort a radio studio, to call out those fans. It takes courage to criticise Millwall fans as Millwall manager. Some in similar positions have done so – notably Gareth Southgate, Ben Mee and recently Nigel Clibbens, the Carlisle United chief executive.
This isn’t giving Rowett a pass, but it would take a bravery that I don’t know
I possess. Maybe I would try and fudge an answer and hope it goes away. I have seen and heard racism at Spurs and at Chelsea – albeit a long time ago – and said nothing. Maybe I would fail when it mattered.
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Perhaps we all need to get braver. Right now there are female Afghan footballers whose lives are at risk. Earlier this week – through an extraordinary effort from a small number of people, including Fifpro and human rights lawyers – 77 athletes, including footballers, managed to get on planes to Australia. But some will be left behind. When you consider bravery and courage in sport it is impossible to look beyond these players.
Women who have spoken out about the sexual abuse some of them experienced at the hands of the former head of the Afghan FA, Keramuudin Karim. Women who could not play home games in their own country – putting themselves in danger just to play the game. As Suzanne Wrack explained on Thursday’s Football Weekly – getting them out of Afghanistan “is not something that these women should be grateful for. We owe them. They have spoken up for equality and human rights in one of the most difficult, hostile countries and environments on the planet.”
In this context it is embarrassing how only recently have I had enough courage to call out anything I perceive as discriminatory on the very rare occasion I’m confronted with it – normally in one of those six-a-side WhatsApp groups where you don’t know half the people. If someone posts some tedious picture of female pundits with a quote about how to do the washing up, I speak up. But even then I don’t find it straightforward – getting the right tone, trying not to antagonise, creating a decision for other people in the group. It would be easier to ignore it, but it certainly isn’t brave.
We have done podcast after podcast on taking the knee – criticising those who hide behind Marxism knowing full well no one has overheard a conversation at a ground or a pub during a game which began “the real problem with Das Kapital is …”
But are we just playing to the crowd? Have we helped at all? And how can we support those in more difficult positions – like Rowett – speak up? The Millwall fan who got in touch with us won’t be the only one who feels lost. How can we help him?
Liverpool recently put out a brilliant video with Jürgen Klopp and Paul
Amann, founder of Kop Outs, the Liverpool LGBTQ+ supporters’ group, following homophobic chanting by their fans against Billy Gilmour. It wasn’t preachy or angry – it was sensitive, thoughtful and open. Perhaps that is the way.
Just consider reaching a place where you feel like walking away from your football club. Consider those for whom playing and enjoying the game puts your life at risk. There are good people in football. It needs them to do more than nothing.