The Liverpool FC Forum > Liverpool FC Forum

Hillsborough Chants need calling out by the Football Authorities

(1/43) > >>

the 92A:
It's not about Hillsborough... followed by the usual twisted nonsense jumping through hoops trying to justify the unjustifiable.
 
Seems like there is a general silence from the football authorities from those in the media ,with a few honourable exceptions, about what is acceptable for whole ends to sing at Liverpool fans. Always the victims it's never your fault, yeah we've heard it all before, that it is not about Hillsborough. it's just a coincidence that we were the victims of one of the worst post war civil disasters and then the victims of a thirty year cover up where the establishment went along with an invented narrative that turned the blame onto the victims. It's just  coincidence that took over thirty years of pain and upset to fight for the truth in the face of the politicians, the judiciary, and the police to prove what we all knew at the time, that it wasn't our fault... but you decide that chant isn't about Hillsborough as you sing it to Liverpool fans, It's not up to you to decide its not about Hillsborough  I'm sitting two places away from  a season ticket holder who lost their son at Hillsborough, We understand what it's about.

No matter what justification is used, both those singing it and we know that the intention is and at best it is for whole grounds to be able to sing about something they know that the vast majority of Liverpool fans perceive to be about Hillsborough with a built in get out clause.

Murderers!  You killed your own fans! or last nights little ditty The Sun was right, you're Murderers! all come with the whataboutery get out clause but are all perceived by us as Hillsborough chants,

See if the whole of Anfield was singing about Munich it would rightly be called out, but the media the football establishment have collective deafness when it comes to these chants, nothing is said yet deep down most know what this is about it doesn't fit with any current narratives.

So what about us. Are we blameless? Of course we aren't, In the seventies We sang about Munich, the older Liverpool fans were disgusted because they had lived through the event, knew the rawness of the feelings but as a young kid I was clueless about that, I wasn't even born in 58 they were just numbers that upset Man Utd fans, it meant nothing to me, just like fighting at the match the older fans disgust made it more attractive, that's young kids for you. What we went through as a fanbase to change all that was a hard lesson that I wouldn't wish on anybody. At the time everyone who went the match got it, not just Liverpool fans the support we got from fans of other clubs will never be forgotten, because it effected us all. We all learnt the hard way.

It's hard to change these kids and both sides can point to video clips of groups of youngsters trying to outdo themselves with sick chants etc, it is tit for tat and no club can claim virtue is on their side, it's a problem that is either changed through direct experience or changing society. But there is a massive difference when these chants about disasters are sung by whole sections of the ground and normally sensible people think it's acceptable and justifiable thing to do so

Yes Liverpool like most teams have our young kiddas who can be as bad as anyone but you don't get the whole ground singing about disasters. Some in the media say it's  a fifty/fifty, plague on both your houses situation and we're all as bad as each other but that is not the case. We don't sing about disasters at Anfield, yet we are constantly provoked by supporters who wouldn't say boo to a goose but think that it's some type of that sad expression 'bantz' to sing about a disaster that a fair proportion of our fanbase have direct experience of.

The memorials say 97 but that doesn't include those that have died by suicide, drinking themselves to death as medication, we just lost another victim last week. So do one with your mealy mouthed dressing up of Hillsborough chants as acceptable because they are chants mocking the deaths of fellow football fans and just count yourself lucky you that it wasn't your club that lost people at Hillsborough because the Leppings Lane was structurally unsafe for semi finals  with teams with large support and we were just the unlucky ones. It could have been Spurs a few years before or Everton at the League cup final replay. it was a disaster waiting to happen.

So next time you sing your always the victims, don't kid yourself you aren't just as bad as the dickheads making crushed face signs, celebrating the deaths of mainly young football fans and think about how it would effect your family if it was your son or daughter who died as the result of going to an unsafe football ground who's safety was in the hands of an incompetent police commander.

Indomitable_Carp:
Absolutely spot on, especially the complicit silence of the punditry, media and authorities. I was listening to the Guardian podcast earlier on last nights match, and the "The Sun Was Right, You´re Murderers" chants got a mention. Yet even there, there was the standard mention of "every club has its despicable minority", and "it reflects very poorly on those singing it as individuals". i.e. The standard cop out. If not even the Guardian are willing to call it out for what it is, what hope is there of it ever being dealt with in a more formal way? For me these chants are on a level with racist and homophobic chanting, which earns individuals bans, and clubs fines should they fail to stamp it out. Fat chance of that ever happening here. Yet imagine trying to use "reflects poorly on individuals" and "every club has minorities" excuses for racist and homophobic chanting - it simply wouldn´t wash in this day and age. So why the complicit lack of condemnation here?

We 100% have dickheads in our fanbase. But I am struggling to remember the last time I heard a Munich chant or saw an air-plane gesture, which is the usual retort to Hillsborough chants. Yet there has not been a single game we´ve played against Utd the last 5-10 years that I can remember, in which there hasn´t been very audible chanting of the "The Sun Was Right" from hundreds (if counting away fans), or thousands (if at Old Trafford) by Man Utd. Manchester City at least had the good grace to make a formal apology the other day, and their fan group put out a brilliant statement.

Obviously the "Sun Was Right" chant, and some even more egregious and hideous chants, are the more obvious examples that there should be no question of dishing out official condemnation, fines and bans. Yet you are absolutely right to point out the "Always the victims" and "murderers" chants that get sung by a very large number of teams that come to Anfield (including tragically our Blue neighbours) - from lower league teams with absolutely zero history of rivalry with Liverpool, to the largest clubs in the Premier League where it is broadcast around the world. The idea that the "Always the victims" chant, started by Man Utd fans not long after Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson´s despicable "self-pity city" article in the mid-2000s, was in reference to anything other then Hillsborough is beyond disingenuous. The defence that "actually its about Heysel" not only doesn´t make sense (when have Liverpool´s fans ever claimed to be victims of Heysel?), but also self-defeating, because how can you think its acceptable to be singing about Heysel?!!


The sad thing is, this thread will be pointed at evidence of Scouser´s always playing the victim card. And so the whole sad charade continues.

Edit : edited to correct some very poor typos  :)

Johnnyboy1973:
For me, it needs to be addressed by the club.

Unlike the rent boy chant this doesn’t surround a consumers protected characteristic and whilst the football authorities may express its disgust that won’t stop the chants imo.

I would have thought Anfield is still a commercial outlet and its customers must act in a certain way so I suspect we would have the power to eject those customers that don’t meet that standard (although I am sure there are those better placed here who know consumer law in greater detail).

the 92A:
Think the football authorities, the press, the club needs to be vocal on this, call it out for what it is won't stop it but needs to be seen as unacceptable and marginalise it at the moment there is a tacit acceptance. Often these things are a process but no process starts if its not called out for what it is. The rent boy stuff made me think about what I considered a harmless chant and made me think about it , didn't help about the nonsense about it being about an ex headhunter when it came about directly after Abramovich when I was going home and away but I thought don't want to make any of our gay fans uncomfortable so happy to stop it but it takes time on these things, we need to start a process where reasonable fans know there's no hiding its a Hillsborough chant

TepidT2O:
Well said. Important words.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page