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When I began to frame my latest rant for Clarets Mad, at the end of last week, it was going to lament the disappearance of real atmosphere at matches.
But then I went to Millwall, and a different dimension was added. At the game, as you may have gathered by now, there was racist chanting. It matters not where it was coming from and who it was aimed at - the important thing is that it was there. This is not an issue which divides along club lines, but upon those of common human decency.
It is easy, too easy, to jump to assumptions when Millwall are involved. They are a club with a stigma which follows them round like a bad smell, and for all their efforts, they cannot shake it off. I did not hear the kinds of noises that others are claiming to have heard; I heard booing.
There could well be a minority of offensive home fans who were drowned out to us in the away end, but who could be heard by Stan Ternent and those listening on radio. Just like amongst the Burnley fans, a few morons could have been at it whilst the rest of us were not. There were a group of Burnley fans up to my left who were certainly abusing Paul Ifill. Make no mistake, these idiots should be banned.
But the responses so far have been frustrating. Theo Paphitis has obviously done his best to drag Millwall and their image forward, and in the light of that, I can understand his eagerness to portray his club in the best possible light. But what he has done smacks of complacency, the attitude of a man priding himself on a job well done. Nowhere in football, nor in society, is the battle won - and it requires more than bland statements and bitter denials to take the cause forwards.
But I also want an atmosphere at my football grounds, and I want that atmosphere to be intimidating. I don’t want to sit in some sort of sanitised environment where people clap politely and mind their P’s and Q’s. I want to shout and scream and let off steam. It was that which hooked me on the game in the first place.
Football grounds have become mute for many reasons. Chief of these, arguably, is the move to all seated stadia: Somehow, sitting down and singing football songs doesn’t seem right. You’re further away from each other, it’s impossible to group together, and what singing there is gets lost in the vacuous spaces.
As a result, clubs have tried a lot of things. Burnley now have some sort of carnival attitude, with cheerleaders, goal music and now goal flags as well. We even have some bloke coming on the pitch to tell us to sing and a new club anthem which has appeared from nowhere. I’ll be honest: I dislike the lot of them. Football fans have always worked best when left to sort the songs out for themselves.
Then there’s the issue of ground bans. A lot of people are banned from the Turf for life for trivial offences - a pint too many pre-match, say. Now a lot of us like a drink or two before the game, and I can’t help but think that a lot of the people who are banned might be the ones who used to start the chants when they were free to come to games. A lot of these individuals now only go to away games, and it often leads to a better atmosphere.
It was that group of people up to my left who started many of the better chants on Saturday. We had a few renditions of We are the Longside, a couple of No Nay Nevers, and ran though a few of the others. For parts of the first half in particular, there was an excellent atmosphere amongst the away faithful.
I must confess that I would happily sit in silence if it meant that racism would be eradicated from the minds of football fans. Sadly, I cannot see that happening; the greater concern is preventing the mindset being passed on to the next generation. Tough action is needed, but against the right people.
The problem with dishing out life bans left, right and centre is that you risk marginalising the sentence. It ought to be something which embarrasses people, rather than making them another statistic. If you are seen to make racist abuse, you should be banned. Other offences of similar severity - football violence for example - should carry the same punishment. Lesser crimes should carry lesser sentences. That is common sense.
I’m not a racist in any shape or form, but I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve booed Jason Robert’s for, in my biased judgement, getting involved when he shouldn’t in past trips to Turf Moor. If Mo was booed for similar reasons, then that is not racism, and it insults their fans to describe it as such. That siege mentality should be cherished at football grounds as long as it does not overstep any mark.
Getting this right is a challenging headache for the football authorities. Sadly, it is an attitude of society which manifests itself in the game. Overcoming it will require Stan Ternent to not just crusade against Millwall fans, but against those Burnley fans who were just as bad. It requires people to feel confident enough to stand up to racists and get them kicked out.
But people will not do that whilst football authorities do not do more. Plain clothes observers should be placed in every stand. Stewards - who appeared to hold back on Saturday - should get involved at the earliest opportunity. Saturday showed us that there is a problem, and that it must be dealt with.
But in dealing with it, we must preserve and encourage a proper football atmosphere. That, lest we forget, is what the game is all about.