Millwall F.C.

Club officials

Board

Coaching staff

Honours

• Second Division / First Division
• *Champions: 1987–88
• Third Division South / Third Division / Second Division / League One
• *Champions: 1927–28, 1937–38, 2000–01
• *Promoted: 1965–66, 1975–76, 1984–85
• *Play-off winners: 2010, 2017
• Fourth Division
• *Champions: 1961–62
• *Runners-up: 1964–65
• Western Football League
• *Champions: 1907–08, 1908–09
• Southern Football League
• *Champions: 1894–95, 1895–96

• FA Cup
• *Runners-up: 2003–04
• Football League Trophy
• *Winners: 1982–83
• *Runners-up: 1998–99
• Football League War Cup
• *Finalists: 1945
• Third Division South Cup
• *Winners: 1937

• London League
• *Champions: 1903–04
• United League
• *Champions: 1896–97, 1898–99
• Kent Senior Shield
• *Winners: 1912, 1913
• London Challenge Cup
• *Winners: 1909, 1915, 1928, 1938
• East London Senior Cup
• *Winners: 1887, 1888, 1889
• East London FA Cup
• *Joint-winners: 1886
• Southern Professional Charity Cup
• *Winners: 1904
• *Finalists: 1903
• London Charity Cup
• *Finalists: 1892

Records and statistics

Player records

Position	Years	Player	Appearances
1	1966–82	Millwall in European football On 22 May 2004 Millwall played Manchester United in the FA Cup Final, losing 3–0. As United had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League, Millwall were assured of playing in the UEFA Cup. Millwall played in the first round proper and lost 4–2 on aggregate to Ferencváros. Supporters and hooliganism Millwall have averaged a gate close to 12,000 per home game over their 93 seasons in the Football League, while the club have spent the majority of that time yo-yoing back and forth between the second and third tiers of English football. Originally based in the East End of London, the club moved across the River Thames in 1910 to south east London and support is drawn from the surrounding areas. The club and fans have a historic association with football hooliganism, which came to prevalence in the 1970s and 1980s with a firm known originally as F-Troop, eventually becoming more widely known as the Millwall Bushwackers, who were one of the most notorious hooligan gangs in England. On five occasions The Den was closed by The FA and the club has received numerous fines for crowd disorder. The BBC documentary Panorama was invited into the club by Millwall in 1977 to show the hooligan reputation was a myth and being blown out of proportion by reporting. Instead the BBC portrayed hooliganism as being deeply rooted in Millwall, and linked them to the far-right political party National Front. The show was extremely damaging for the club. Former club chairman Reg Burr once commented: "Millwall are a convenient coat peg for football to hang its social ills on", an example being the reporting of convicted murderer Gavin Grant. Although he had played for eight different clubs, playing his fewest games for Millwall, and was signed to Bradford City at the time, the BBC used the headline, "Former Millwall striker Gavin Grant guilty of murder". The stigma of violence attached to Millwall can be traced back over 100 years. Millwall played local rivals West Ham United away at Upton Park on 17 September 1906 in a Western League game. Both sets of supporters were primarily made up of dockers, who lived and worked in the same locality in east London. Many were rivals working for opposing firms and vying for the same business. A local newspaper, East Ham Echo, reported that, "From the very first kick of the ball it was seen likely to be some trouble, but the storm burst when Dean and Jarvis came into collision. This aroused considerable excitement among the spectators. The crowds on the bank having caught the fever, free fights were plentiful." In the 1920s Millwall's ground was closed for two weeks after a Newport County goalkeeper, who had been struck by missiles, jumped into the crowd to confront some of the home supporters and was knocked unconscious. The ground was again closed for two weeks in 1934 following crowd disturbances after the visit of Bradford Park Avenue. Pitch invasions resulted in another closure in 1947 and in 1950 the club was fined after a referee and [Assistant Referee (association football)|referee (association football)|linesman] were ambushed outside the ground. In the 1960s, hooliganism in England became more widely reported. On 6 November 1965 Millwall beat west London club Brentford 2–1 away at Griffin Park and during the game a hand grenade was thrown onto the pitch from the Millwall end. Brentford's goalkeeper Chic Brodie picked it up, inspected it and threw it into his goal. It was later retrieved by police and determined to be a harmless dummy. There was fighting inside and outside the ground during the game between both sets of supporters, with one Millwall fan sustaining a broken jaw. The Sun newspaper ran the sensationalist grenade-related headline "Soccer Marches to War!" Trouble was reported at Loftus Road on 26 March 1966 during a match between Queens Park Rangers and Millwall, at a time when both sides were near the top of the league table pushing for promotion to Division Two, but the London derby was won 6–1 by the west London based team, QPR. In the second-half, a coin was thrown from the terraces, which struck Millwall player Len Julians on the head, drawing blood. The stadium announcer warned that the game would be abandoned if there were any more disturbances from the crowd, prompting some Millwall fans to invade the pitch in an unsuccessful attempt to get the game abandoned. When Millwall's unbeaten home record of 59 games came to an end against Plymouth Argyle in 1967, the windows of the away team's coach were smashed. In the same year, a referee was attacked and the FA ordered the club to erect fences around The Den's terracing. On 11 March 1978 a riot broke out at The Den during an FA Cup quarter-final between Millwall and Ipswich Town, with the home team losing 6–1. Fighting began on the terraces and spilled onto the pitch; dozens of fans were injured, with some hooligans turning on their own team's supporters leaving some innocent fans bloodied. Bobby Robson, then manager of Ipswich, said of Millwall fans afterward, "They should have turned the flamethrowers on them". In 1982 Millwall club chairman Alan Thorne threatened to close the club because of violence sparked by losing in the FA Cup to non-league side Slough Town. The 1985 Kenilworth Road riot, after an FA Cup sixth-round match between Luton Town and Millwall on 13 March 1985, became one of the worst and widely reported incidents of football hooliganism to date. On that night, approximately 20,000 people packed into a ground that usually only held half that number to watch Luton beat Millwall 1–0. Numerous pitch invasions, fighting in the stands and missile-throwing occurred, of which one such object hit Luton's goalkeeper Les Sealey. It led to a ban on away supporters by Luton from their Kenilworth Road ground for four years. Luton were asked by Millwall to make the Wednesday night match all-ticket, but this was ignored. As a result, rival hooligan firms gained access to the stadium. As well as the Millwall hooligans and those belonging to Luton's firm the MIGs, many of the 31 fans arrested after the violence were identified as being from Chelsea's Headhunters firm and West Ham United's Inter City Firm. The FA commissioned an inquiry which concluded that it was "not satisfied that Millwall F.C. took all reasonable precautions in accordance with the requirements of FA Rule 31." A£7,500 fine was levied against Millwall, though this was later withdrawn on appeal. The penalty that Millwall faced was perhaps that the club's name was now "synonymous with everything that was bad in football and society". In May 2002, hundreds of hooligans attaching themselves to Millwall were involved in disorder around the ground, after the team lost a play-off game to Birmingham City. It was described by the BBC as one of the worst cases of civil disorder seen in Great Britain in recent times. A police spokeswoman said that 47 police officers and 24 police horses were injured, and the Metropolitan Police considered suing the club after the events. The then chairman Theo Paphitis responded that Millwall could not be blamed for the actions of a mindless minority who attach themselves to the club. "The problem of mob violence is not solely a Millwall problem, it is not a football problem, it is a problem which plagues the whole of our society", he said. Paphitis later introduced a membership scheme whereby only fans who would be prepared to join and carry membership cards would be allowed into The Den. Scotland Yard withdrew its threat to sue, stating: "In light of the efforts made and a donation to a charity helping injured police officers, the Metropolitan Police Service has decided not to pursue legal action against Millwall F.C. in relation to the disorder". Some legal experts said it would have been difficult to hold a football club responsible for something that occurred away from its ground and involved people who did not attend the match. The scheme introduced by Paphitis now only applies to perceived high-risk away games. Many fans blame the scheme for diminishing Millwall's away support, such as at Leeds United where fans are issued with vouchers which are then exchanged for tickets at a designated point of West Yorkshire Police's choosing on the day of the game. Also, early kick-off times arranged by the police often result in only a few hundred fans making the trip. In January 2009, hundreds of Millwall fans perceived as "high risk" individuals gained access to an FA Cup fourth-round match away at Hull City. The game, won 2–0 by Hull, was overshadowed when seats, coins and plastic bottles were thrown by some away supporters. There were conflicting reports in the media as to whether missiles were initially thrown by Hull supporters following chanting and jeering by Millwall fans of Jimmy Bullard just prior to the fixture. On 25 August 2009, Millwall played away at West Ham United in the Football League Cup, losing 3–1 after extra time. One Millwall supporter was stabbed during clashes between the two sets of fans outside the ground. The game saw hundreds of West Ham fans invade the pitch on three occasions, forcing the game to be temporarily suspended once. The police later said the violence, because of its scale, was organised beforehand. In the aftermath of the disorder, Millwall were handed three charges by the FA and later cleared of all of them; West Ham received four charges and were found guilty on two counts: violent, threatening, obscene and provocative behaviour, and entering the field of play. West Ham were fined £115,000, an amount seen as an insult by Millwall, which staunchly defended the actions of its own fans and the club's inability to do any more than it had for a match at a rival's ground. After a game against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road in September 2010, manager Kenny Jackett said Millwall's hooligan problems are to a certain extent exaggerated by media sensationalism. "I see it as unjust. We are an easy club to criticise and in my time, the way we have been reported is unfair", he said. Other examples of this include archive footage of their hooligan element's past bad behaviour being shown, when disorder has occurred at other grounds, not involving them. During a game between Millwall and Huddersfield Town, The Observer reported that a Huddersfield Town fan had thrown a coin at a linesman, and that some Millwall fans had intervened, and handed the culprit over to police. The News of the World, however, bore the headline: "Millwall Thugs Deck Linesman With Concrete". This has led to a siege mentality among supporters of the club, which gave rise to the Millwall fans' famous terrace chant, No one likes us, we don't care, being sung in defiant defence of themselves and their team. In April 2013, Millwall met Wigan Athletic in a semi-final of the FA Cup. Millwall lost the game 2–0. Towards the end of the match, violence broke out in part of the stand allocated to Millwall, with individuals fighting amongst themselves and then against police, resulting in 14 arrests, of which two were Wigan supporters. In January 2014, a Millwall fan ripped a linesman's flag after a corner was not given to his side during a game against Leicester City; Millwall lost 1–3. On 29 May 2016, Millwall played in the Football League One play-off final against Barnsley at Wembley Stadium, but towards the end of the match, with Barnsley winning 3–1, a group of Millwall supporters broke through a security barrier and attacked Barnsley supporters, some of whom were forced to leave the stadium to avoid the violence. Also there were objects thrown towards the Barnsley players and Barnsley supporters during the game. The fighting and violence was condemned by the Football Association. On 26 January 2019, Millwall beat Everton 3–2 and knocked them out of the FA Cup. The two teams supporters clashed away from The Den before the game, with an Everton fan being slashed across the face with a knife. A senior Metropolitan Police officer said, it was "some of the most shocking football violence seen for some time". The game was also blighted by allegations of racist chanting. On 5 December 2020, Millwall played against Derby County in the first game back at the Den for fans in ten months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the 2,000 fans present booed the players who took a knee and raised a fist before the game in support of anti discrimination as outlined in a letter written by the Milwall players before the match. The booing was condemned by The FA, EFL, Kick it Out, and mainstream media. Cabinet minister George Eustice refused to condemn Millwall fans, stating the Black Lives Matter political movement was against what most British people believed in though said the players should be free to express their views. The leader of the Brexit Party Nigel Farage called BLM a Marxist Party who had been "sussed out" by Millwall fans and called for kneeling to stop. In the next game at the Den against QPR on 8 December 2020, Millwall fans applauded as QPR and Millwall players raised aloft an anti-racism banner about inequality in football. The 2,000 Millwall fans also cheered the QPR players who took the knee. No Millwall player kneeled. Before the game, every fan was given a letter from the club saying, "The eyes of the world are on this football club tonight – your club – and they want us to fail. Together as one, we will not let that happen." Some Millwall supporters had said their boos at the Derby game did not have racist intent, but were instead directed specifically at the Black Lives Matter movement, which had become increasingly unpopular with fans. In the community In 1985, the club founded the Millwall Community Trust, which offers sporting, educational and charitable projects. The Trust is based next door to The Den, in the Lions Centre. Working with local people from the surrounding boroughs of Lewisham, Southwark and the wider Millwall Community. The Trust offers sports and fitness programmes, educational workshops, disability activities and soccer schools. The club helps promote anti-knife and anti-gun crime. In a match against Charlton Athletic in 2009, both teams wore special kits for the match in honour of murdered local teenagers and supporters Jimmy Mizen and Rob Knox. The logos of both clubs' shirt sponsors were replaced by the text, "Street violence ruins lives". The club has also helped raise over £10,000 for the charity Help for Heroes. In popular culture Millwall have been depicted in films several times, specifically highlighting the club's hooliganism firm the Bushwackers and the rivalry with West Ham United. Often glorifying football violence in the beginning, each film typically ends in loss of life, showing the futility of hooliganism.The Firm – Real life Millwall supporter Gary Oldman plays Bex, leader of football firm the Inter City Crew, a fictional representation of West Ham's Inter City Firm and their violent exploits. Millwall's Bushwackers firm are called The Buccaneers in the film.Arrivederci Millwall – A group of Millwall supporters travel to the 1982 World Cup in Spain, just after the Falklands War breaks out, intent on avenging a personal loss.Black Books – In the first episode "Cooking the Books", Bernard Black attempts to antagonise some Millwall hooligans into injuring him severely enough so that he may avoid doing his taxes. Upon remarking, "How does the song go? Millwall, Millwall, we're really dreadful and all of our girlfriends are unfulfilled and alienated," he succeeds.The Football Factory – Primarily about the Chelsea Headhunters, who fight numerous other firms on away days, culminating in a big fight against Millwall's Bushwackers.Green Street – Elijah Wood plays an American student who gets involved with West Ham's firm. The film builds up to a big clash with Millwall's firm at the climax, after the two teams are drawn against each other in the Cup, foreshadowing similarities to the Upton Park riot.Rise of the Footsoldier – The rise of a football hooligan is chronicled from his beginnings on the terraces to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals. The rivalry between West Ham and Millwall is portrayed during the opening scenes of the film.Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal – The main protagonist Sunny Bhasin initially agrees to leave Southhall United Football Club and signs a lucrative offer to play for Millwall F.C. He later decides not to play for Millwall though.Green Street 2: Stand Your Ground – A direct-to-video sequel to Green Street. It follows on directly from the original's climax, with several members of West Ham's and Millwall's firms ending up in prison together and arranging a football match.The Firm – A remake by Nick Love, director of The Football Factory and himself a Millwall supporter. Set in the 1980s, the film focuses on the music, fashion and culture surrounding football at the time. It was generally well received by critics. In October 2009, the Metropolitan Police released still photos from the film in relation to a search for hooligans from the Upton Park riot. The mistake led to an apology from Scotland Yard.St George's Day – A British gangster film which featured cameos from Millwall players Liam Trotter, Alan Dunne, David Forde, Darren Ward and Scott Barron. The film also included several Millwall references such as 'No One Likes Us' and 'We Fear No Foe'. The club's ground The Den doubled as The Dragons Lair, home ground of fictional team Harchester United in the television series Dream Team. It also appeared in episodes of the shows The Bill and Primeval. In literature, books such as "No One Likes Us, We Don't Care: True Stories from Millwall, Britain's Most Notorious Football Hooligans" by Andrew Woods focuses on the hooligan element of Millwall. Sunday Mirror columnist Michael Calvin spent the 2009–10 season covering Millwall, writing the book Family: Life, Death and Football. The book looks at the rivalry with West Ham United, the stabbing of a Millwall supporter and the Lions play-off success and promotion to The Championship under Kenny Jackett. News from Sky Sports from Southwark News General