Adil Ray hits out at Millwall and Nottingham Forest fans over ‘incidents’ at matches

TV presenter Adil Ray hits out at Millwall and Nottingham Forest fans over ‘incidents’ at matches during the weekend’s FA Cup ties.

The 47 year old Good Morning Britain host was left incensed by the actions of some supporters at both The Den and the City Ground.

His tweet, which can be seen below, is doing the rounds, getting over 5,000 likes within less than 24 hours after he called both sets of fans out.

Adil wrote: “Yesterday Millwall fans booed taking the knee, today Notts Forest fans booing Saka and singing “you let your country down”. On national television Utterly shameful. The clubs ought to be fined and banned if repeated. #BlackLivesMatter”

Yesterday Millwall fans booed taking the knee, today Notts Forest fans booing Saka and singing “you let your country down”. On national television Utterly shameful. The clubs ought to be fined and banned if repeated. #BlackLivesMatter

— Adil Ray OBE (@adilray) January 9, 2022

Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira has also ripped into the Millwall fans after they were heard booing his Crystal Palace players as they took the knee ahead of their FA Cup third round clash.

The two sides met in a London derby at The Den on Saturday afternoon but the match was marred by the behaviour of some sections of the home support, while a flare was also thrown from the Palace end.

In addition to booing the knee, Millwall fans were heard singing homophobic chants, with Palace goalscorer Michael Olise seeing a bottle thrown at him from the crowd.

Broadcasters ITV were forced to apologise for foul language and abusive chanting during the game.

Following the match, Vieira condemned the behaviour of those who booed his players by saying: “As a football club, we are against any kind of discrimination of course and this is not something that we want to see on the field.

“Taking the knee, that is something that we are really proud to take and every football club and player making their decision.

“What is important is to show that as a football club we are against discrimination.”

And at the City Ground, Nottingham Forest fans sang ‘you let your country down’ before booing Arsenal player Bukayo Saka as the game played out.

The group of fans were referring to Saka’s miss for England in the Euro 2020 final penalty shootout – despite the 21-year-old star playing a major part in the Three Lions’ run to a first major final since 1966.

After Adil Ray hits out at Millwall and Nottingham Forest fans over ‘incidents’ at their matches, Twitter users reacted…

@HLTCO: There’s a distinct difference between racism and the song Nottingham Forest fans were singing yesterday. To group the two sets of fans together is intentionally misleading and wrong.

@ArchieMundegar: I do like Adil and he is usually on point. But agree this missed the mark and conflates two things poorly.

@Mark_GoSky1965: Didn’t Stuart Pearce receive a similar experience at football grounds after his penalty miss.

@Craig_Pankhurst: Racism is an issue across the globe. And in Britain, we are not immune to it. But to suggest the chant aimed at Saka is based on the colour of his skin takes away the focus of real racist chants. That chant has been aimed at countless England players; Beckham & Lamps being 2!

@sjlitchfield: We also applauded the taking of the knee…….Man U fans sung similar to Pearce after Italy 1990 – nothing to do with race….

@pwcassidy: Criticism of a player for footballing reasons can’t be seen as racism just because of the colour of their skin. Booing an act which is to highlight racial inequality can definitely be seen as racism.

@stekallen: Regarding Sako, I believe Stuart Pearce received a similar experience in 1990 & Beckham in 98 it happens man up and deal with it

@Liam_Holman99: If anyone brings shame to the country, it is the so-called ‘fans’. There’s banter against opposing players then there’s this.

@Ad_Coops_81:
Villa belted out “you let your country down” to Lampard and Gerrard after their penalty misses in 2006.
Beckham had effigies hung from lampposts.
You’re wide of the mark on the Forest chant.
Bang on with Millwall though.

@forestfanzone: What an embarrassing tweet, trying to bring racism into a bit of football banter. Ridiculous.

@bentrant123: Complete and utter joke, what about Stuart pierces penalty miss or Beckhams red card, both received unreal amounts of abuse for it yet they’re a different race, the race you are referring to as being abusive towards the young black players in similar positions ??? #nffc

@Ellerbeck18: Adil as regards Saka that’s quite normal and has nothing… ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with his ethnicity, maybe you don’t watch enough footy to realise that? Becks was slaughtered in the same way when red carded in the World Cup. Not everything is about Racism.

@AllEnglandFlags: Only person who’s thrown racism into the mix is you. Think we’re slowly starting to see the real you.

@KyleKirkland92: I’m sorry what? Near enough the whole CG applauded the taking of the knee. Nottm is one of the most multicultural cities in 🇬🇧 The 1st black player to play for 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 started at #NFFC. & he accuses us of racism because of a little banter to Saka? What a sore loser. Delete this tweet.

@Mick_Birchall: Beckham got it for years after his red card against Argentina, Rooney after his against Portugal. Gerrard and lampard got it on a regular basis. Bottom line is Saka missed a pen so will also get it, not everything has to come down to race. Won’t be able to sing anything soon

That’s wrong too, but it’s doubly wrong when you know young black players are suffering terrible racism. Don’t do what racists would do.

— Adil Ray OBE (@adilray) January 9, 2022

when someone’s suffered vile racism don’t do anything that copies what racists would do as it looks racist. I don’t think that chant to any player is acceptable. Football chants and banter like these enable racists. Just don’t do it. This is is bigger than football.

— Adil Ray OBE (@adilray) January 10, 2022