On Sunday, 17 March, Manchester United came through a barnstorming FA Cup quarter-final with Liverpool at Old Trafford. The action on the pitch was enthralling and left the stadium rocking when Amad Diallo netted a winner in the final seconds of Extra Time.
Unfortunately, the occasion has been marred by tragedy chanting with the FA confirming last night that they are working with the police to identify anyone at Old Trafford who was involved in reported tragedy chanting.
Chants of ‘Murders' and ‘The Sun was right, you're murderers' were heard coming from the Stretford End at different times throughout the afternoon and some were audible on live TV. The songs are sung in reference to either the Heysel disaster in 1985 involving Liverpool fans or the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 where 97 Liverpool fans were killed.
The fixture has been marred by tragedy chanting since the 1958 Munich air disaster when seven members of the Manchester United squad were killed. Then, since the 1980s, United fans have taunted their rivals with songs relating to the aforementioned stadium disasters.
Both sets of supporters are far from squeaky clean when it comes to tragedy chanting so it is refreshing to see the FA looking to take action after they announced back in August that anyone found guilty of singing about tragedies could be banned and arrested.
FA statement on tragedy chanting during Man Utd vs Liverpool
After videos surfaced online of certain songs being sung, the FA released the following statement last night:
“We are aware of the reported tragedy chanting during today’s FA Cup fixture between Manchester United and Liverpool, and we will be liaising with and supporting Greater Manchester Police. We strongly condemn any offensive, abusive and discriminatory chants in football stadiums, and we are determined to stamp this behaviour out.
“It is entirely unacceptable and can have a lasting and damaging impact on people and communities within our game. It must stop, and we support any club and their fans who try to eradicate this from the terraces.”
The statement comes four months after they made contact with Luton Town in relation to similar chants at Kenilworth Road during Luton's match with Liverpool.