110 years of history seemed to be eschewed on Friday when Liverpool Football Club announced their proposals to leave the legendary Anfield stadium for a new 55000 home in Stanley Park.
With this announcement the hopes and desires of the Anfield4Ever pressure group seemed dashed, the hundreds of hours of work undertaken by Messrs Edge, Kelly and Melia wiped out with the dash of an accountant's pen.
Hope may be at hand however. Newsround's sources have revealed that gothic superhero Batman may cross the Atlantic in a bid to save the Anfield stadium.
Batman's team of wildlife experts have revealed a colony of pipestrelle bats roost in the rafters of the Kop stand. This small bat species is capable of eating three thousand insects in one night (handy for when the Mancs visit in midweek). Estimates from the National Bat Colony Survey suggest a pipistrelle population decline in the UK of approximately 70% between 1978 and 1993.
It not yet known whether the Kop colony is the home to the Pipistrellus pipistrellus or the Pipistrellus pygmaeus. These bats can only be identified by the subtle differences in their call (a sort of libyan vs arabian variation).
Batman plans to take action as under schedules 5 and 6 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and under Schedule 2 of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc.) Regulations, 1994 it is illegal to knowingly disturb a roost of any species of bat.
Help from Europe could also be at hand - the pipistrelle is also listed on Appendix III of the Bern Convention, Annex IV of the EC Habitats Directive and Appendix II of the Bonn Convention (and is included under the Agreement on the Conservation of Bats in Europe).
So could this little bat be the saviour of Anfield? You heard it here first ....
