Millwall fined and forced to accept 12 point action plan as punishment for racist chanting in FA Cup match

Millwall were forced to accept a 12 point action plan for beating discrimination on the terraces on Thursday after being hit with a £10,000 fine for racist chanting against Everton in the FA Cup last season.

CCTV will be improved at the Den and the club will work work closely with the campaign group Kick It Out as part of the plan imposed by the Football Association.

Millwall supporters were recorded using racist language in a song discriminating against the Pakistani community during their fourth-round win in January. There was also trouble before the match with a man slashed across the face during a brawl.

Kick It Out described the chanting as "disgusting" at the time, but the charity is understood to have cautiously welcomed the relatively small fine for the club, given work by the club behind the scenes.

An FA statement said the club "failed to ensure its spectators, and all persons purporting to be its supporters or followers, conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and refrained from using abusive and/or insulting words which included a reference to race and/or ethnic origin and/or colour, during the fixture".

On Thursday, Millwall said they were disappointed by the punishment. "The club accepts, as it has done throughout, that there was a clear breach of said regulation during the aforementioned game. Despite that acceptance, and after thoroughly studying the full written reasons for the majority verdict, the club fundamentally disagrees with several elements which have shaped the subsequent sanction against it.

"That said, however, no appeal will be made as the club feels that this will only serve to further an already lengthy legal battle which would in no way assist with its continued aim - nor football's as a whole - to rid the game of discrimination."

In 2013, Millwall avoided FA punishment but were warned future misconduct could result in sanctions after two fans were arrested and charged by police and given lifetime bans by the club following racist abuse during matches against Birmingham City and Leeds United.

During the club's run to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2017, Millwall fans were accused of racially abusing Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-min at White Hart Lane but, again, the club escaped sanction.