Millwall are considering legal action after their club badge was used on an illustration of a Ku Klux Klan figure in a children’s educational booklet.
The booklet, distributed in schools, was aimed at telling the story of Paul Canoville and was written by Peter Daniel, an education and interpretation officer at Westminster City Council.
Canoville was Chelsea’s first black player and played for the Blues between 1981 and 1986, helping them to the Second Division title in 1983-84.
He defied racist abuse from elements of the team’s fanbase and rival fans.
Canoville eventually became a Chelsea club ambassador and set up the Paul Canoville Foundation, a charity founded in 2015 to support young people facing adversity.
The booklet has been issued in schools as part of an anti-racism programme, with images shared on social media showing the front cover with the foundation and City of Westminster logos.
Millwall are considering legal action over the use of the club’s badge on an illustration of a KKK figure in an educational children’s booklet
The badge was used on the KKK figure as part of a booklet telling the story of Paul Canoville
The booklet featured a comic book-style page that highlighted landmarks in Canoville’s career, such as his first goal and hat-trick for Chelsea, as well as continuing to be targeted by racist abuse.
‘Racism never went away. I was badly abused in a reserve match at MILLWALL, but then I could show the racists my 1984 2nd Division Champions medal,’ one caption read.
The words were featured alongside a depiction of a member of the Ku Klux Klan, the American white supremacist and far-right hate group, with their logo replaced by Millwall’s club badge.
In a statement shared on social media, Millwall Supporters’ Club confirmed the club has received an apology over the ‘serious misuse’ of the club’s badge, which created a ‘false and damaging image of the club’.
‘The club has received a full apology from Westminster Council following their serious misuse of a registered club badge, which was placed on an illustration of a white supremacist hate group member in a children’s education booklet distributed in schools, creating a false and damaging image of the club,’ the statement read.
‘The council have confirmed no more copies of the image with the club’s logo will be made or distributed by them and all remaining material in their possession will be destroyed.
‘The club is still considering its legal position on the matter and are unable to comment further.’
When contacted by Daily Mail Sport, Westminster City Council confirmed it had apologised to Millwall and the offence caused.
‘We accept the use of this image was an insensitive way to illustrate the problem of racism within football,’ a Westminster City Council spokesperson said.
‘We have apologised to Millwall Football Club for the improper use of their logo and for any offence caused.
Canoville was Chelsea’s first black player and endured racist abuse during the 1980s
‘The booklet has been removed from circulation, and we are reviewing processes to ensure this doesn’t happen again.’
Daily Mail Sport has contacted the Paul Canoville Foundation for a comment.
According to the Athletic, the Foundation has said the imagery was not factually accurate, but was in the spirit of what happened.
The foundation reportedly stated that the incident, which he had previously referenced in his book titled ‘Black and Blue’ had seen three Millwall fans on the sidelines wearing KKK hoods giving him racial abuse, but they did not feature the club badge.
The foundation said the council education officer who created the booklet had taken the visual representation further by adding the Millwall badge to the figure.
Canoville reportedly had not approved or had seen the booklet, while the educational course was said to have stopped over a year ago.
