Millwall invite Ince to elaborate on racism allegation

Millwall today urged Paul Ince to tell them what he heard after the former England midfielder accused Lions fans of racially abusing his Wolves team-mate Seol Ki-Hyeon.

Ince said he “couldn’t repeat” some of the taunts allegedly aimed in South Korea international Seol's direction in Wolves’ 2-1 win at The Den on Saturday.

But Millwall have found nothing so offensive after studying videos of the match, and invited Ince to elaborate.

“If Paul Ince wants to pursue the matter, we invite him to get in touch with the chief executive Ken Brown and we will talk it through with him,” said a Millwall spokesman.

“We have not heard anything we would deem to be racial abuse, but Paul Ince might have heard other things.

“If he feels we should investigate, then he should tell us what was said and we will take it very seriously.

“But at the moment, we can do no more than what we have done already.”

Seol scored a last-minute winner Glenn Hoddle’s side, and Ince had said: “It was ironic for Seol to get us the winner as some of their fans were a disgrace and some of the things they were shouting at him throughout the game I just couldn’t repeat.

“We have worked so hard to eradicate this sort of thing from our game and to hear that, especially at Millwall who have done more than most clubs to stamp it out, is very disappointing.

“It was a real reminder of the bad days and I don’t want to see that again.”

Millwall confirmed that anyone discovered to have been using racial abuse at The Den would be banned instantly.

The club have worked hard to stamp out racism, and the programme for the match with Wolves instructed supporters not to use racist language and to report any they hear to police.

Late last year Millwall were charged by the FA in connection with racist abuse alleged to have been directed at Liverpool defender Djimi Traore in a Carling Cup match between the teams.

The club’s player-manager Dennis Wise was called upon to speak out against racism following the allegations of his former England team-mate Ince.

Kick It Out, football’s anti-racism campaign, believes that a strong message from Wise could help to reduce the problem.

“Dennis Wise did something similar earlier in the season, and I would recommend he make another anti-racism statement – if the allegations are true,” said a spokesman for Kick It Out.

“We would also urge Paul Ince to complain through the right channels, either directly to us, or via the Professional Footballers’ Association.”

Kick It Out have already spoken to Millwall regarding Ince’s allegations – but they have received no complaints from supporters at the match.

“We are working with Millwall on such problems, and we are confident that they take the strongest action possible when these incidents arise,” the spokesman continued.

“Millwall are one of the leading clubs in terms of the ongoing fight against racism.

“But we feel that football fans should be more proactive in reporting incidents of racism as we continue the fight to eradicate it.”