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The rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool has gone beyond any reasonable person’s level of tolerance.
The fierceness of the fans has led to songs and chants born from tragedy, and the perceived mockery of both the Hillsborough and Heysel Stadium disasters by the ‘Justice for the 39’ campaign.
The rift between Liverpool and Manchester is historic, and it’s widely accepted that it began during the industrial age, when Manchester was unhappy at the export dues that Liverpool merchants were charging.
In 1894 the Manchester Ship Canal was opened, bypassing the Port of Liverpool meaning that business in Manchester didn’t have to pay to export goods.
As far as football goes, the success of the two clubs has led to a rivalry that has been described as one of the most intense in England, and probably the world.
I have to point out that this isn’t a Manchester United bashing article. I have friends who are United fans, my step-Dad is a Red Devil; as long as they support their club in the privacy of their own home, I have no issue.
I have had many long and funny conversations with United fans. Songs and chants at football matches are mostly clever and highlight the great sense of humour that comes out of the two cities.
However, there is a small group of fans at either end of the M62 that have taken the rivalry to depths that are truly disturbing.
The days of football hooliganism are mostly gone, and while there are still small isolated incidents of violence, thankfully they are few and far between now.
The hatred, and it is true hatred, between these two subgroups of fans is at the point where the chants about opposition clubs focus on the tragedies that have affected them.
Liverpool fans still sing about the Munich disaster in 1958, a plane crash that claimed the lives of 23 people. Not to be outdone, Manchester United fans will call Liverpool supporters ‘murderers’ over the Heysel Stadium disaster, which caused the death of 39 Juventus fans.
There are also songs about Hillsborough where 96 supporters died. In total, the three incidents have resulted in the death of 158 people, yet this is used by football ‘fans’ to mock the opposition. Both sets of fans need to look at how they can justify that level of ignorance over the death of that many people.
One trend is that the families of the Hillsborough justice campaign are embellishing their status as victims. Thankfully, it is a relatively small trend, however it seems to have popularity in the extreme end of support.
The issue of Hillsborough and the fight for justice for the families was brought back into the spotlight in 2012, when the inquiry into the disaster showed that there was a level of dishonesty from the police.
This led to fresh calls for the prosecution of certain individuals. I’m not going to go into detail regarding the incident, or the inquiry, there is plenty of information available regarding that elsewhere.
As we approach the 24th anniversary, the BBC has aired a documentary about the events that surrounded that day, this of course again putting Hillsborough in the spotlight and social media lit up with people sending messages of support.
A petition to initiate disciplinary action against one of the police officers involved has been created and is circulating on twitter. What sparked my interest was a reply that asked where was the justice for the 39?
I had no idea what this was about and after some research I found that it refers to the Heysel Stadium disaster. In 1985 a European Cup Final was held at Heysel Stadium, Belgium. Thirty-nine Juventus fans lost their lives when a group of Liverpool fans charged at opposing supporters and a wall collapsed.
In short, small groups of fans, mainly from Manchester United and Everton, are putting forward the argument that Liverpool fans are unworthy of asking for justice for Hillsborough when Liverpool fans caused the death of Juventus fans.
I need to make my position clear on this; Liverpool fans did cause the death of innocent football fans. The stadium wasn’t up to standard, I agree that the police could and should have dealt with crowd better. I have no doubt that there may have been a hooligan element from other clubs in England present at the time.
Regardless of the provocation received, the fact remains that Liverpool supporters charged the Italians. Those people are directly responsible for the death of those fans.
The difference between the incidents is clear to me. In the case of Heysel the decision to charge the Juventus fans was made by individuals. It was a personal decision to attack without regard for the safety of others or the consequences of their actions. An investigation into the incident led to the conviction of fourteen Liverpool fans for manslaughter.
Each individual was sentenced to three years imprisonment. The fact that some of the sentences were suspended also seems to cause consternation. The decision made by the Belgian courts is not something that anybody could influence and the judicial system ran its course.
Whether Liverpool as a club did enough to commemorate or apologise for the incident is a separate issue. As far as I’m concerned, Liverpool FC as an organisation cannot be held responsible for the incident, and those individuals who are have been dealt with and served their sentence. Heysel should never be forgotten and Liverpool FC needs to continue building bridges and repairing friendships with the Bianconeri.
Hillsborough, on the other hand, was caused by a senior police officer making a decision to open the exit gate, which led to the sudden surge of people. The lack of direction to the crowd led to the overcrowding of areas at the Leppings Lane end of the stadium and the death of Liverpool fans.
What followed was a shameful period where South Yorkshire Police tried to shift responsibility to the Liverpool fans and lies were told and published by a less than popular newspaper under the headline ‘The Truth’.
The reason that the families of the lost and the fans of Liverpool are still calling for justice is that it took until 2012 for the real truth to come out. The Hillsborough Independent Panel was given full disclosure to material in December 2009, 20 years after the incident. The reason that the need for justice is still asked for is that it took so long for an open investigation to take place.
If the Heysel inquiry had dragged on for that long and Liverpool FC had denied the victims families the truth regarding the incident for 20 years and the offenders had been protected by the club, then I would agree that there was a major issue and probably wouldn’t be a Liverpool fan now. In the case of Heysel, those responsible were identified and punished. The families of the victims of Hillsborough have never had that.
In 2013 the fact that we are still singing and chanting about the darkest days of our clubs, is a verb stronger than disappointing. Surely both sets of fans have an obligation to put a stop to this.
There has to be a point where basic human decency dictates that there are subjects that are taboo.
Supporters, regardless of the shade of red they wear, need to stand shoulder to shoulder and rid the beautiful game of this behaviour.
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