Both Leeds and Millwall have issued statements to condemn some chanting from a minority of visiting fans at yesterday’s cup tie, which referenced the murder of two of our fans in Istanbul 25 years ago.
The Leeds statement read "During today’s FA Cup fourth round tie with Millwall, we were extremely disappointed to hear vile chants relating to football tragedies from the away section at Elland Road.
We know the impact this has on the families of Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight, along with the whole fan base of Leeds United. We will work with the police and Millwall Football Club to identify those involved, whilst we will also continue our efforts with the football authorities to help eradicate these chants from the game”.
Though this hasn’t gone down too well on Millwall’s main fans’ forum, who seem to be irritated by the fact it came out so soon at the end of the game, rather than waiting for the two clubs to issue a joint statement. "This has come from Leeds Football Club and was pre prepared and posted at the final whistle they seem determined to get us in trouble…The real story here is Leeds cannot take being beaten twice while not scoring by Millwall.”
While another thought "Is this the same Leeds United who sing about the Munich Air disaster? ****ing hypocrites”. (Here I’ve modified the original post, because I know that articles including swear words aren’t picked up by the main news feeds, but if you put asterixes you get away with it).
Certainly there were regular "Munich 58 " chants at Leeds games during the 1980s, but it must be decades since I last heard one. The club wouldn’t stand for it now, and ‘Tragedy Chanting’ is listed on the scoreboard amongst the other misdemeanours that could get you a ban from the stadium.
Perhaps these Millwall fans could have a word with their own club, who issued their own statement soon after. "We all have a duty to ensure Millwall Football Club is represented proudly and responsibly at all times. The club strongly condemns all forms of football tragedy abuse and is appalled to receive reports of such chanting from a minority at today’s Emirates FA Cup fixture against Leeds United.”
"Both clubs have suffered tragic losses to their respective families in recent history. Chanting about this is entirely unacceptable and will not be tolerated by the club or the governing bodies. It has no place in football and the club will work closely with Leeds United and authorities to identify those responsible.”
To be fair, most of the fans on the same Millwall forum condemned this chanting, especially as they themselves suffered with a couple of stabbings in 2004 on their sole European adventure in Budapest, though thankfully none were fatal on that occasion. One said "mocking a cowards attack ain't for me. Most old school wall will agree”.
And others thought that no more than 20 or so were involved, as hardly anyone in the stadium was aware of it at the time, and it wasn’t mentioned by any of the commentators. "It was a few towards the back that sung it. A few wall called them out and mentioned "aren't we suffering enough with knife crime you ****ers?"”
I’m prepared to believe that it’s only a minority of Millwall fans who do this sort of thing, but every time we go to the New Den there are some in the block nearest to the away end who make stabbing gestures, all captured on video. It’s good to see that clubs are now clamping down on ‘tragedy chanting’ as it’s long overdue, but there is still a corner of South-East London where there is still progress to be made.