|
But he added that Mo Camara had been very much upset by it all and said in his letter: "It is clear that there were pockets of racist elements in both the Millwall and Burnley sections on Saturday."
And at the abuse directed at Camara he added: "There seemed to be no obvious reason for such sustained hostility. We did raise the situation with your ground safety officer because there were reports that this was considered to be racist chanting.
"People that I know and trust implicitly have said, ‘Definitely racist chanting’," he said. "Others equally have said, ‘There was booing which might have been racist’. What is beyond dispute is that Mo Camara was singled out for abuse which was sustained throughout the match and, as he is Burnley’s only black player, the racism issue was bound to be raised."
Finally the Burnley Chairman said that it was unfortunate that Paphitis had personalised the issue with Alastair Campbell.
"The reference to the helicopter last season as you well know was tongue-in-cheek from the Burnley party and at no time has he (Campbell) ever ‘freeloaded’ at Burnley," Kilby said.
It is an olive branch that surely Paphitis should accept but indications are that he won’t. He seems to think that any suggestion of racism at his ground is a personal insult and an attack on the efforts they have made when nothing could be further from the truth.
Today the official web site at Millwall is displaying messages of support from various people, some of whom weren’t even at the game. Paphitis and Millwall have sadly missed the point with some incredible comments.
Canon Owen Beaumont MBE, who quite rightly was upset at Stan Ternent’s wide of the mark references to the BNP, said it was mere coincidence that Mo Camara was black and was booed. "I just wish people would stop trying to call the club racist," said the Canon. Interesting one that given that nobody has tried to call Millwall Football Club racist, far from it.
Councillor Denise M Capstick added: "The chants that were heard during this game were all in good humour with no racist implications whatsoever."
Lord Herman Ounsey is far from happy and says: "The club should be praised for all its efforts rather than ridiculed."
No it doesn’t look as though Millwall are going to accept the olive branch at all – they really do not seem to have understood any of it and continue to take it as a personal insult.