Millwall found guilty but escape fine for crowd abuse against Wigan Athletic star

The charges pertained to the Lion' Championship clash at Wigan last April, when James McClean – who was transferred to Wrexham in August – was repeatedly targeted by the away end.

Incidents in the 8th, 12th and 45th minutes of the game were highlighted to the Football Association, who deemed there was a case to answer.

And an independent Regulatory Commission has imposed an action plan and formal warning upon Millwall for breaching FA Rule E21.

Despite the chants being found to have had menacing 'express or implied reference to religion', the club was not fined.

Instead, they have been threatened with 'a very significant financial penalty' should any similar incidents happen again.

"Millwall Football Club acknowledges the decision of an independent commission to impose upon it an action plan following a breach of FA Rule E21 following the Lions’ Championship fixture at Wigan Athletic on Saturday 22nd April," read a club statement.

"The club is pleased its extensive due diligence and mitigation processes have been recognised by both the FA and the Commission throughout this process.

"The club strongly condemns discrimination of all kinds and has a zero-tolerance policy against such abuse.

"Through the work of its industry-leading Equality Steering Committee, the club takes a very proactive approach to combating discrimination and continues to work tirelessly on a wide range of initiatives and measures to help continue driving positive change."

The full written report contains an interesting insight into the process.

In it, mitigation was put forward by Millwall that 'there is an element of goading behaviour by James McClean that triggered the offending chanting'.

Also, the Millwall CEO (Steve Kavanagh) went in person to the Millwall (away) end at approximately 1.30pm before the match started.

"The Millwall CEO spoke to as many fans as possible, explaining his concerns about anti-Pope chanting.

"Those spoken to agreed that there should be no “anti-Pope” chanting."

The case was proven on the following three pieces of evidence.

“In the 8th minute of the match, while the camera zooms in on Wigan manager Shaun Maloney, Millwall supporters chant en masse ‘f**k the Pope and the IRA’,” highlighted the report.

“This is followed by en masse chants of ‘I bought a flute for 50 pence, the only thing that I could play was ‘f**k the Pope and the IRA’. This chant repeats once more in the clip.

"In about the 12th minute of the match, Wigan were preparing to take an attacking free-kick.

"As James McClean (Wigan’s number 11) walks back to prepare to take the free- kick, Millwall supporters chant en masse ‘the only thing that I could play was f**k the Pope and the IRA’. This continues for the duration of the clip.

"In the 45th minute of the match, while the camera zooms in on Wigan supporters and the Wigan manager Shaun Maloney, Millwall supporters en masse chant ‘the only

tune that I could play was ‘f**k the Pope and the IRA’.”

Blackpool were recently fined £35,000 and had an action plan imposed on them after their supporters directed sectarian abuse towards McClean at Bloomfield Road the previous weekend.