Westminster City Council published a children's anti-racism booklet for London primary schools and somehow decided the right way to illustrate historic racism in football was to slap Millwall's badge onto an illustration of a Ku Klux Klan robe. The club found out the same way everyone else did.
The pamphlet tells the story of Paul Canoville, the Black Chelsea player who suffered vile racial abuse in the 1980s. One page shows a KKK figure in a white robe — with Millwall's crest on the chest — placed next to a Canoville quote about being racially abused at a Chelsea Reserves match against Millwall Reserves. The imagery is drawn from a real incident. Using the club's current badge as its centrepiece, in an educational document distributed to schoolchildren, is a different matter entirely.
Millwall say they are considering legal action, arguing the image creates "a false and damaging image of the club." Labour MP Neil Coyle, representing Bermondsey and Old Southwark — Millwall's own backyard — called it "an insult to southeast London," pointing directly to the club's community work. The Millwall Supporters' Club said they were "outraged" at what they described as a "deeply damaging misrepresentation."
The bitter irony here is real
Millwall's hooligan reputation is well-documented and some of it fairly earned — the FA Cup semifinal violence in 2013, the booing of players taking the knee in 2020, a 45,000-pound fine just this season for offensive chanting at Crystal Palace. They're not a club that gets to dodge scrutiny.
But they also created English football's first in-house anti-discrimination body back in 1994. They work with Kick it Out and Show Racism the Red Card. That context matters, and whoever designed that booklet clearly did zero research before hitting print.
The Paul Canoville Foundation confirmed it wasn't consulted on the contents at any stage. Westminster Council has since pulled the booklet from circulation and issued an apology, acknowledging the image was "an insensitive way to illustrate the historic problem of racism within football." Kensington and Chelsea Council, whose logo also appeared on the front cover, backed the withdrawal.
All this while a promotion battle is live
Millwall are level on points with Ipswich in the Championship, fighting for one of two automatic promotion spots — the first time the club has been this close to the Premier League since the 1989-90 season. Ipswich hold the edge on goal difference and have three games left to Millwall's two.
Millwall travel to already-relegated Leicester on Friday. Ipswich host West Brom on Saturday. The margin for error is essentially zero, and the club's week has been consumed by a PR disaster not of their making.
The Millwall Supporters' Club said the fanbase "works tirelessly to eradicate discrimination of any kind from the game." Whether that's entirely accurate or not, the club deserved better from a council that put their name on something it never saw coming.
