Millwall have had an average of around 12,000 for each home game during their time within the Football League, while the team has spent the bulk of their time moving between the second and third divisions in English football. The club was initially situated within London's East End of London, Millwall moved to the other side of into the River Thames in 1910 to south-east London and has a large number of supporters from the nearby regions. The fans and the club have an historical connection with hooliganism in football, which was prevalent throughout the 1970s as well as the 80s through the company initially known as F-Troop but later became more popularly known in the form of The Millwall Bushwackers, who were one of the most notorious hooligan gangs of England. Five times The Den was closed by The FA and the club was fined numerous times for disorderly behavior. A BBC documentaries Panorama was invited to The Den in 1977 by Millwall in 1977 to demonstrate that the hooligan image was just a myth, and exaggerated by the media. Instead, the BBC presented hooliganism as very rooted in Millwall and even attempted to tie them up with the extreme right-wing politics of the National Front. The program was very detrimental to the club. The former Chairman of the club Reg Burr once commented: "Millwall provide a perfect coat hanger on which football clubs can hang its social problems on" An example of this is the coverage of the murderer Gavin Grant. Even though he played for eight clubs, playing his tiniest number of game (four) with Millwall and was also contracted by Bradford City at the time The BBC featured the headline "Former Millwall striker Gavin Grant found guilty of killing".
A stigmatization of violent crime that is attached the name Millwall has been traced more than 100 years. Millwall faced local opponents West Ham United away at Upton Park on 17 September 1906, in an Western League game. Both sets of fans were predominantly composed of dockers, who resided and worked in the same neighborhood in East London. A lot of them were rivals who worked for rival firms and competing for the same position. The local newspaper, the East Ham Echo, reported that "From the initial kick it was expected to cause some problems however, the storm broke out after Dean and Jarvis were involved in a collision (Millwall also had two of their players suspended during the game). The incident caused a lot of excitement among fans. The bank crowd had gotten the fever and there were plenty of free fights." In the 1920s, Millwall's stadium was shut for two weeks following an incident in which a Newport County goalkeeper, who was hit by missiles, leapt into the crowd to fight several supporters from home who were knocked out. The ground was closed during the period of two weeks that was 1934 after protests by the crowd following the arrival to Bradford Park Avenue. The pitch was also subject to a closing in 1947, and in 1950, the club was fined for an official and linesman were attacked outside the ground.
Through the 60s the phenomenon of hooliganism in England was more frequently reported. On the 6th of November, 1965 Millwall defeated West London club Brentford 1-1 away in Griffin Park in the match, an grenade from a hand was thrown into the pitch at Millwall's Millwall end. The Brentford goalie Chic Brodie took it in, examined it , and threw it in his goal. The ball was later recovered by the police and found to be harmless fake. There was a lot of fighting both inside and outside the stadium during the game between the two groups of fans and one Millwall fan suffering an injury to his jaw. The Sun newspaper ran the alarming headline "Soccer marches to War!" Trouble was discovered on Loftus Road on March 26, 1966, during a game of Queens Park Rangers and Millwall in a period when both teams were at in the lead of league standings, battling to be promoted into Division Two, but the London derby was won by QPR, the west London side, QPR. The second half ended with an object was thrown from the terraces and struck Millwall teammate Len Julians on the head and drew blood. The announcer for the stadium declared that the game could be called off in the event of further disturbances by the crowd, leading some Millwall supporters to take over the field and attempt unsuccessfully to have the game cancelled. The unbeaten record of Millwall's home games of 59 matches came to an end with Plymouth Argyle in 1967, the windows of the coach for the away team were broken. The same year, an official was assaulted and the FA directed the club to put up fences around the Den's Terracing. On March 11, 1978, an riot broke out in The Den during an FA Cup quarter-final match between Millwall as well as Ipswich Town, with the home team being defeated 6-1. The riot started on the terraces, and then spilled onto the field. Dozens people were wounded and some hooligans turned on the supporters of their team, and causing bloody injuries to innocent fans. Bobby Robson, then manager of Ipswich was quoted as saying of Millwall supporters after the incident "They were the police who ought to have turned the torch-throwers at the fans". In 1982, Millwall the club's chair Alan Thorne threatened to close the club due to the violence that was triggered by losing the FA Cup to non-league side Slough Town.
In 1985, the Kenilworth Road riot that occurred following the FA Cup sixth-round match between Luton Town and Millwall on 13 March 1985, was one of the most horrific and most widely-reported instances of football violence to this day. On the night, about 10,000 people crowded into the stadium that normally contained half the number of people to see Luton beat Millwall by 1-0. There were numerous pitch assaults, fights in the stands , and missile-throwing were witnessed, among which one object struck Luton's goalie Les Sealey. The incident caused a ban on supporters who were away of Luton of the Kenilworth Road ground for four years. Luton were approached to Millwall to make Wednesday night match ticketed however, this request was not taken seriously. In the end, different hooligan companies were granted admission to the arena. In addition to the Millwall hooligans as well as those who belong to the Luton's MIGs Many of the 31 supporters arrested following the incident were identified as coming from the Headhunters' firm of Chelsea as well as West Ham United's Inter City Firm. The FA requested an investigation that found that they were "not confident by the evidence that Millwall F.C. was taking all reasonable precautions to meet the rules in FA Rules 31(A)(II)." The fine was APS7,500 against Millwall however, it was later cancelled upon appeal. The punishment that Millwall received was possibly that the name of the club was "synonymous with everything undesirable in football and in society".
As of May 2002 a large number of hooligans who had gathered around Millwall engaged in disturbances on the field, following Millwall lost an extra-time game against Birmingham City. The incident was described by BBC as among the most egregious instances of civil disorder that has been seen within Great Britain in recent times. A spokeswoman for the police said it was the case that police personnel were injured. as well as 24-police horses had been injured and that the Metropolitan Police considered suing the club for the incidents. The former chairman Theo Paphitis responded that Millwall was not responsible for the acts of a numb group of people who are loyal in the same way as the football club. "The mob violence problem is not just a Millwall issue, it's not a football-related issue It is an issue that affects every aspect of our society" he stated. Paphitis then announced a membership program where only those who were willing to join and have membership cards will be permitted access to The Den. Scotland Yard withdrew its threat to sue, and stated: "In light of the efforts put in and the donation to a charity that assists injured police officers the Metropolitan Police Service has decided not to take lawsuits in relation to Millwall F.C. regarding the incident". Legal experts have said that it would be impossible to make a soccer club responsible for an incident that happened away from its stadium and involved players who were not present at the game. The new scheme, which was implemented by Paphitis is now limited to away games that are deemed to be high risk. Many fans are unhappy with the scheme to reduce Millwall's fan support away for games, like Leeds United where fans are given vouchers that can be exchanged to purchase tickets at a specified place of West Yorkshire Police's choice during the game. match. Additionally, kick-off times that are early that are set by police typically lead to only a couple of hundred fans travelling.
The month of January was 2009 when a large number of Millwall fans who were considered "high risk" people were allowed the right to attend an FA Cup fourth-round match away at Hull City. The match, which was won with a 2-0 score by Hull and astonished by seats along with plastic bottles and coins were thrown by a few away fans. There was a variety of reports in the media about the initial hurling of missiles by Hull supporters after cheers and jeering from Millwall supporters who were a part of Jimmy Bullard (an ex-West Ham player) shortly before the match. On the 25th of August 2009 Millwall took on West Ham United in the Football League Cup, losing 3-1 in extra time. One Millwall supporter was wounded during battles between two groups of fans outside the stadium. The match saw hundreds West Ham fans invade the pitch three times which forced the game be suspended for a short time. The police later claimed that the violence, due to the scale of it, was planned prior to the game. Following the violence, Millwall were handed three charges by the FA and were later dismissed of all three; West Ham received four charges and were found guilty of two counts of violent or threatening, obscene, aggressive behaviour, as well as being on the field of play. West Ham were fined PS115,000 which was viewed as insulting by Millwall who steadfastly defends it's supporters and its inability to perform any better than they did for an opponent's stadium.
Following a match with Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road in September Manager Kenny Jackett said Millwall's hooligan issues are to some extent exaggerated by sensationalism in the media. "I find it unjust. We are a club that is easy to criticise , and during my time at our club, the manner in which we've been portrayed is unjust" said the manager. Another example of this is archives of footage of their hooligan group's previous bad behavior being shown, even when disturbances have occurred on other venues, but not with the club. In a match that was played between Millwall as well as Huddersfield Town, The Observer stated that one Huddersfield Town fan had thrown coins at a lineman and Millwall fans intervened and handed over the culprit to the police. In the News of the World, however, carried the headline "Millwall Thugs Deck Linesman With Concrete". This has resulted in an atmosphere of resentment among fans of the club. This has led to Millwall supporters' well-known song on the terrace, "No one is nice to us We don't care singing in defiant defense of their team and themselves. In April of 2013, Millwall met Wigan Athletic in the semi-finals in the FA Cup. Millwall were defeated 2-0. After the game the violence broke out in the area which was allocated to Millwall and saw people fighting with each other and later against police. This led to 14 arrests. Of these, the two involved Wigan supporters. In January 2014 an Millwall fan tore the linesman's flag when the corner was not awarded to his team during the game with Leicester City; Millwall lost 3-3. On the 29th May, 2016 Millwall took part during an Football League One play-off final against Barnsley at Wembley Stadium, but towards the end of the game which ended with Barnsley taking the lead 3-1 group Millwall supporters went through a security fence and began to attack Barnsley supporters and some were forced out of the stadium to avoid violence. Additionally, there were objects thrown at Barnsley players as well as Barnsley fans during the match. The violence and fighting were condemned by the Football Association. On the 26th of January, 2019 Millwall defeated Everton 3-2 and knocked them out the FA Cup. The fans of both teams clashed in the middle of The Den before the game which resulted in one Everton fan being hit across the face by the blade of a knife. The senior Metropolitan Police officer said, that it could be "some very shocking violence in football witnessed in a long time". The match was also marred by claims of racial shouting.
5 December 2020 Millwall was playing Derby County in the first game to The Den for fans in the last ten months, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A few of the 2,000 supporters were booing the players who sat down and raised their fists before the game to support Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter protests and social movement. The booing was denounced as a violation of the rights and freedoms by The FA, EFL, Kick it Out, and the mainstream media. Cabinet Minister George Eustice refused to condemn Millwall supporters, saying that the Black Live Matter as a political movement was in opposition to what the majority of British people believed and that supporters should be free to express their opinions. The head of the Brexit Party Nigel Farage called BLM an Marxist Party who had been "sussed out" by Millwall supporters and demanded the fans to kneel in protest. The next time the Den played The Den in the match against QPR on December 8, 2020 Millwall supporters cheered while QPR also cheered as Millwall players held up an anti-racism banner that spoke of the inequalities within football. The thousands of Millwall fans also booed QPR players who sat on the knees. No Millwall player kneeled. Prior to the game fans were each given an official letter from Millwall that read, "The eyes of the world are watching that football club tonight. It's and your club and they'd like us to fall. As a team, we're not going to let that occur." A few Millwall supporters had claimed that their boos during the Derby match did not have any racist motives, but were rather in opposition to the politicization in this Black Lives Matter movement in the UK.