Sunday brought yet another example of the ugliest side within the beautiful game. During Sunday’s 1-0 surprise victory by Liverpool, at home over Manchester City, chants of “murderers” and “always the victims, it’s never your fault” were blatantly heard emanating from the section of Anfield that houses the away side supporters.
It’s in reference to both the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, and the Heysel disaster of 1985. See the video below:
Just 6 months after ruining the silence for Hillsborough Manchester City fans are singing “the sun was right, you’re murderers”.
Unless we share this they’ll get away with it. Let’s make sure sports media talks about this!! @SkySports @talkSPORT
pic.twitter.com/VhPGGnbACN— Prime Liverpool (@footiestatto) October 16, 2022
Disastrous events, on April 15, 1989, during the FA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, led to the death of 97 LFC supporters. Due to mismanaged crowd control, hundreds of fans were trampled on.
Investigations later found that the British tabloid newspaper The Sun was complicit with local authorities in covering up what actually happened.
Deplorable.
Disgusting. https://t.co/KDYZA6unZZ— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) October 17, 2022
The publication victim-blamed the Liverpool supporters who perished in the human crush.
At Heysel Stadium in 1985, prior to the European Cup final, rioting led to the death of 39 Juventus supporters who were on hand to see their team face Liverpool in Brussels.
Liverpool FC condemned the chanting heard today and said they will work with both Manchester City Football Club and local law enforcement to try and make sure this doesn’t happen again.
The Liverpool FC statement reads:
“We are deeply disappointed to hear vile chants relating to football stadium tragedies from the away section during today’s game at Anfield,”
“The concourse in the away section was also vandalised with graffiti of a similar nature.
“We know the impact such behaviour has on the families, survivors and all those associated with such disasters.
“We are working with the relevant authorities and we will also work with Manchester City in order to do our utmost to ensure these chants are eradicated from football altogether.”
We’re still waiting on the statement from MCFC regarding this situation. As for the aforementioned graffiti, we have more on that over at this link.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and he co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast, part of Edge of the Crowd Network. Follow him and the website on Twitter and Instagram.