london englands fa has condemned fans of london club millwall for booing as players from their team and visitors derby county took a knee before their championship match on saturdaythe secondtier game was among the first matches to see a return of supporters to stadiums since the start of britains covid restrictions in marchplayers throughout english football have been taking a knee since july initially in support of the black lives matter movement although both the premier league and the football league efl have since said the gesture is now linked to their own antiracism campaignsvideo footage of the start of the game contained loud booing from the 2000 fans inside millwalls the den stadium as the players took the kneein response the fa said in a statement the fa supports all players and staff that wish to take a stand against discrimination in a respectful manner which includes taking of the knee and strongly condemns the behaviours of any spectators that actively voice their opposition to such activitieson friday millwall players had released a statement sayingas a squad we are fully supportive of the entire football familys efforts in ridding the sport and society generally of all forms of discriminationthe gesture of taking the knee before matches provides an opportunity for us to do exactly that and continues to allow all those playing to publicly showcase their support on behalf of the whole squad for the fight against discrimination read the statementwe wish to make clear that taking the knee for us is in no way representative of any agreement with political messaging or ideology it is purely about tackling discrimination as has been the case throughoutwe will continue to do this until the start of the new year when a new and comprehensive antidiscrimination strategy will be announced by the clubthe death in minneapolis of a black man george floyd after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes sparked protests around the world with many demonstrators kneeling in streets and squares to protest against racismthe position was taken by national football league nfl player colin kaepernick during the playing of the us national anthem to call attention to racial injustice and has been adopted by many sports players since