Millwall, the saviours of English football?

While Wise cradled his son in a press conference, Beckham was denying allegations of an affair

On Sunday afternoon, Millwall beat Sunderland in the semi-final of the FA Cup, thereby clinching not only an appearance against Manchester United in English football's showpiece event, beamed live on television to 100 countries around the world, but also an appearance next season on the glamorous European stage.

The prospect of regiments of Millwall fans heading for Spain or Sweden or Slovenia is enough to chill the blood of those whose job it is to protect the reputation of English football overseas. For years, Millwall has been branded as a club with terrifyingly thuggish supporters, many of them affiliated to Far Right organisations.

In fairness, the club has worked hard to prevent these thugs from attending matches. And there was no serious trouble at Sunday's semi-final in Manchester. Some might interpret as belligerently antisocial the chant: "He's only five foot four, he'll break your fucking jaw!", which is how many Millwall fans chose to honour their team's pugnacious player-manager Dennis Wise, but only sticks, stones and knuckledusters break bones, windows, train carriages and motorway service stations; words are deemed innocuous.

They shouldn't be. To complain about offensive language at football matches these days is to invite ridicule; not since the heyday of Brian Clough has there been a respected figure in the game who has taken issue with the practice of obscene chanting. Yet not a few of football's current problems began with the game's administrators accepting that 30,000 people can't possibly give voice to their derision following a mistimed shot without chanting "what the fucking hell was that?"

Admittedly, "what the blazes was that?" doesn't scan quite as well. But it's no joking matter. Something should have been done long ago about orchestrated swearing, even in the form of referees stopping matches. Now, regrettably, it is too late. My eight-year-old son knows that there are certain "rude" words I don't like him saying, then I take him to a football match and he hears pretty much the entire repertoire from tens of thousands of his elders. One answer is not to take him to matches, although I would also have to stop him watching football on television. Another is to let him say whatever the blazes or even the Dickens he wants.

As neither prospect appeals, we'll doubtless carry on as we are. At least I can take him to matches knowing that it is only my sensibilities likely to be given a pummelling, and not the rest of me. It was different 30-odd years ago. When I was a kid my father used to say that I would only go to a First Division football match over his dead body, which is pretty much how it worked out. He died when I was 14; at 15 I became a season-ticket holder.

As at every other football ground, the prospect of crowd violence at the Den, where Millwall play, has receded a good deal over the years. But still there will be thugs flexing their fists at the prospect of cracking some Manchester United heads and then some more in Spain, Sweden or Slovenia. If they wreak enough havoc on the European trail, it is possible that all English clubs could again be banned from European competition, as happened following the 1985 Heysel disaster. The national team could even be stopped from trying to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.

It is ironic that those Football Association executives who recently decided that it was worth paying Sven Goran Eriksson £4m per year to steer England to the next World Cup finals in Germany, will be sharing a stadium on 22 May with people whose activities next season could be more significant than Eriksson's in deciding whether England do compete in Germany 2006.

It is also ironic that Dennis Wise, who for many people represents all that is least appealing about football, should have his day in the sun on the day that David Beckham, supposedly a paragon of wholesome behaviour, had his day in The News of the World. While Wise was joyfully cradling his young son in a press conference, Beckham was denying allegations that he enjoyed a three-month adulterous affair. If he still played for Manchester United, that would give the Millwall fans something to chant about during the Cup final.

But let us not prejudge them. Some will say that their misdeeds in the past entitle us to worry about their behaviour in the future. Some will cite as depressingly typical the promise of their publicity-hungry chairman, Theo Paphitis, to run naked through the streets of Bermondsey should his club reach the FA Cup final; what price the fans behaving responsibly when the chairman is such a blustering exhibitionist, with or without his trousers on?

But I welcome Millwall's success. I am thrilled that the FA Cup has thrown up one surprise finalist, given that the other is so utterly predictable (only twice in 11 years have neither Manchester United nor Arsenal reached the FA Cup final, in both those years it was Chelsea who lifted the Cup, and the English say Scottish football is devoid of true competition).

The main reason I am pleased, though, is this: Millwall now has a chance of redemption. And if Millwall of all clubs can go to a Cup final and a European campaign while winning friends and influencing people, then Millwall of all clubs might be the one to reclaim English football's good name.

b.viner@independent.co.uk