- A section of United supporters were heard chanting sickening songs referring to the Hillsborough and Heysel Stadium disasters in the first half at Anfield on Thursday evening
There was something infinitely more disappointing than Manchester United’s performance at Anfield on Thursday night, and that was the disgusting behaviour of many of their supporters.
The 2-0 Europa League defeat to Liverpool leaves the Red Devils’ season in an almighty mess, but nothing that happened on the pitch degraded the name of Manchester United more than the vile chants which emanated from the section of the Anfield Road end housing the visiting fans.
Terrace banter has been one of the primary sources of joy for match-goers for over a century, with the to-and-fro between fraught enemies being a particular highlight.
But there is very definitely a line that cannot be crossed. And the United supporters’ constant taunting of Liverpool fans in the first half was not just beyond the pale, it was downright disgraceful.
United followers somehow found it acceptable to spend much of the first 45 minutes blasting out chants relating to the deaths of 96 people at Hillsborough in 1989 and the incidents surrounding the loss of 39 lives at Heysel in 1985. No matter how badly things were going on the pitch, to revert to such despicable ends was simply unforgivable.
It was not just a pocket of those in the away end who were chanting “The Sun was right, you’re murderers”. It was no minority shouting “sit down if you’re murderers”. It was no momentary lack of judgement by a few idiots. They sang it long and they sang it loud.
United manager Louis van Gaal has claimed previously this season that fans are likely to be led by other, louder voices on the terraces or in the media. But there is no excuse for some of what came out of the United section on Thursday.
If Uefa and the FA have the backbone to study security cameras pointed in that direction, there will be plenty of faces for them to identify as perpetrators. And from there, each and every person who joined in should be banned from entering a football ground again.Some might wish to jump to the defence of the culprits by pointing up chants which have been sung by opposing supporters relating to the Munich air disaster in 1958, but these are not subjects in which tit-for-tat is an appropriate course of action.
Anyone revelling in such misery and loss suffered in the name of football needs their head read.
The 96 Liverpool fans who never made it back from Hillsborough in 1989 had done absolutely nothing wrong. They didn’t deserve to die. What they deserved was to watch their team for many more years to come, enjoying the same ups and downs of being a football supporter which had led them to Sheffield in the first place.
The 39 people who lost their lives in Belgium four years earlier are similarly worthy of a far greater impact on modern football than fodder for sick one-upmanship. Their deaths should be used only as an example of where football has gone wrong in the past, and supporters of all clubs should unite in celebrating the liberty they have in following their teams around in vastly improved and immeasurably safer stadiums.
But people who find amusement in such tragedies and deem them to be opportunities for point-scoring do not deserve to return to football grounds.
Following a football team around and being entertained by the greatest game in the world is a privilege, and those who sang those downright horrendous chants at Anfield are not worthy of the joy and pleasure that football can bring.
There was something infinitely more disappointing than Manchester United’s performance at Anfield on Thursday night, and that was the disgusting behaviour of many of their supporters.
The 2-0 Europa League defeat to Liverpool leaves the Red Devils’ season in an almighty mess, but nothing that happened on the pitch degraded the name of Manchester United more than the vile chants which emanated from the section of the Anfield Road end housing the visiting fans.
Terrace banter has been one of the primary sources of joy for match-goers for over a century, with the to-and-fro between fraught enemies being a particular highlight.
But there is very definitely a line that cannot be crossed. And the United supporters’ constant taunting of Liverpool fans in the first half was not just beyond the pale, it was downright disgraceful.
United followers somehow found it acceptable to spend much of the first 45 minutes blasting out chants relating to the deaths of 96 people at Hillsborough in 1989 and the incidents surrounding the loss of 39 lives at Heysel in 1985. No matter how badly things were going on the pitch, to revert to such despicable ends was simply unforgivable.
It was not just a pocket of those in the away end who were chanting “The Sun was right, you’re murderers”. It was no minority shouting “sit down if you’re murderers”. It was no momentary lack of judgement by a few idiots. They sang it long and they sang it loud.
United manager Louis van Gaal has claimed previously this season that fans are likely to be led by other, louder voices on the terraces or in the media. But there is no excuse for some of what came out of the United section on Thursday.
United manager Louis van Gaal has claimed previously this season that fans are likely to be led by other, louder voices on the terraces or in the media. But there is no excuse for some of what came out of the United section on Thursday.
If Uefa and the FA have the backbone to study security cameras pointed in that direction, there will be plenty of faces for them to identify as perpetrators. And from there, each and every person who joined in should be banned from entering a football ground again.Some might wish to jump to the defence of the culprits by pointing up chants which have been sung by opposing supporters relating to the Munich air disaster in 1958, but these are not subjects in which tit-for-tat is an appropriate course of action.
Anyone revelling in such misery and loss suffered in the name of football needs their head read.
The 96 Liverpool fans who never made it back from Hillsborough in 1989 had done absolutely nothing wrong. They didn’t deserve to die. What they deserved was to watch their team for many more years to come, enjoying the same ups and downs of being a football supporter which had led them to Sheffield in the first place.
The 39 people who lost their lives in Belgium four years earlier are similarly worthy of a far greater impact on modern football than fodder for sick one-upmanship. Their deaths should be used only as an example of where football has gone wrong in the past, and supporters of all clubs should unite in celebrating the liberty they have in following their teams around in vastly improved and immeasurably safer stadiums.
Following a football team around and being entertained by the greatest game in the world is a privilege, and those who sang those downright horrendous chants at Anfield are not worthy of the joy and pleasure that football can bring.
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