MILLWALL manager Gary Rowett has been slammed for his claim that the act of taking the knee before matches is causing a “rift and divide” in football and that authorities must find a “more positive” alternative to the gesture.

Rowett failed to condemn his club’s fans after they booed Fulham’s players for making the gesture at the Den on Tuesday night.

Fulham players knelt ahead of the Championship match, which they went on to win 2-1, while Millwall’s chose to stand — some with a fist raised as a show of solidarity.

Boos were heard while the players performed the gesture, which Millwall discontinued late last year while claiming that it is “a gesture which the club respects and it firmly asks all those in attendance to do likewise.”

But rather than condemning fans for not respecting the players’ stance, Rowett instead said that football authorities needed to step in and help clubs find a “more positive way” of promoting “unity.”

“I think what we need at the moment is the authorities to help clubs out and find a better way to unify people,” Rowett said after the match

“In my opinion – I don’t want to comment on individual people’s decision to do that – but we just need to find a way to unify people, and at the moment, 20 seconds, 30 seconds in a game is just causing such a rift and divide amongst football.”

He continued: “I think we need help — we need help to find a more positive way of making some form of action.”

Former Leyton Orient player-manager Jobi McAnuff was among the first to hit out at Rowett’s comments, saying on Sky Sports that he was disappointed by his reaction.

“I don’t think we can be any clearer in terms of the message behind taking the knee and what it stands for and what it represents: it’s the fight against racism and discrimination, it’s that simple,” he said.

“These fans at this football club are making a decision to boo the players taking the knee. For me, there no other explanation anymore other than they’re opposing equality.”

He added of Rowett: “What you can do as the figurehead is condemn it in the strongest possible terms, and that’s what I would like to have seen, and that’s why I’m disappointed.”

Responding to the incident, former England player Danny Mills said that those who actively make the choice to boo an anti-racist statement must themselves be racist.

“You can’t be in the middle of this,” he asserted. “You’re either racist or you’re not — there’s no middle ground.

“If you’re booing anti-racism statements or gestures, then these people have to be singled out and asked why.”

“It needs to be stamped out, nobody wants this in the game,” he continued.

“If the punishments aren’t harsh enough and people are allowed to get away with it, it will continue, sadly.”

Show Racism the Red Card chief executive Ged Grebby asserted that taking the knee is part of a “positive movement that will hopefully have some real change in our society,” having started in football after the killing of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests.

“This is an anti-racism stance, it’s about supporting anti-racism,” he told the Morning Star. “The small minority know they’re booing anti-racism, in my opinion.

“Everybody else in football seems to think it’s fairly straightforward. Show Racism the Red Card doesn’t say every player has to do it … but it’s a stand that supports our work, it supports the work of combatting racism, not just in football but in our society.”

Grebby emphasised the need for education around the issue, both on the part of figures like Rowett as well as fans — the latter he feared were being organised by far-right groups.

“I’m not saying that everybody who boos is a racist,” he said. “But we need to make sure that people who are booing know they are booing anti-racism, and they can draw their own conclusions from that.

“If they want to boo anti-racism, we can draw our own conclusions from that as well.”