Don't worry, this isn't another post about the progression of the team under Rodgers. It's actually about the way that a minority of the fans seem intent on keeping us in the headlights of the tabloids for all the wrong reasons.
Let's face it, in recent years Liverpool and its fans have become increasingly unpopular, with episodes like the Suarez incident reflecting badly on club and fans alike. The universal shock at the findings of the Hillsborough Inquiry made much of that irrelevant, and made the world at large realise that it wasn't a situation where we we 'acting the victim', but was in fact one of the most heinous and endemic cover ups in memory. The tidal wave of goodwill towards the club and its fans was pretty overwhelming (even if it was way too late).
And so to Sunday's match, which I really hoped would be an opportunity to show that fans could act as rational, sensible adults, and could commemorate a tragic event in a peaceful and dignified way. If the United fans were dicks, so be it - the press would pick up on it and they would be vilified for it. Ferguson's open letter to United fans wasn't just because he sympathised with the situation (which I think that he did - no one who genuinely loves the game could fail to be moved), but also because he could see a PR cluster**** of epic proportions on the horizon.
The opening to the match was incredibly moving, and the Liverpool fans at least were exemplary. The game itself has already been dicussed at length, so no need to rehash that. And so to the aftermath, which to be frank has left me wondering why I still follow football at all.
Firstly, the idiots who did the Munich gestures at the end of the game should be banned for at least the rest of the season. How stupid, how tribal, and how selfish to do that on a day that was supposed to be about showing the world that we were better than that, that we were dignified in our grief, and that the loss of 96 lives was far more important than any stupid rivalry. If the United fans want to make a show of themselves, let them - they'd have come out of it looking ridiculous. Instead of that the actions of a handful of ****wits make us look like hypocrites.
And as for the Mark Halsey abuse on Twitter. It's a game of ****ing football, and he's just a bloke who happens to referee for a living. Yes, he made bad decisions, but **** happens, and next time it might be us who benefits from a bad decision. To make death threats, to say that you wish he'd died from cancer, that almost defies belief. Who are these ****ing idiots? How dare they purport to represent the rest of us and our club? And really, when as a club we are grieving for the senseless loss of so many lives, who goes on a social media platform and wishes suffering and death on a person because he might have made an error of judgement? Jesus, words fail me.
Anyway, rant over.
Let's face it, in recent years Liverpool and its fans have become increasingly unpopular, with episodes like the Suarez incident reflecting badly on club and fans alike. The universal shock at the findings of the Hillsborough Inquiry made much of that irrelevant, and made the world at large realise that it wasn't a situation where we we 'acting the victim', but was in fact one of the most heinous and endemic cover ups in memory. The tidal wave of goodwill towards the club and its fans was pretty overwhelming (even if it was way too late).
And so to Sunday's match, which I really hoped would be an opportunity to show that fans could act as rational, sensible adults, and could commemorate a tragic event in a peaceful and dignified way. If the United fans were dicks, so be it - the press would pick up on it and they would be vilified for it. Ferguson's open letter to United fans wasn't just because he sympathised with the situation (which I think that he did - no one who genuinely loves the game could fail to be moved), but also because he could see a PR cluster**** of epic proportions on the horizon.
The opening to the match was incredibly moving, and the Liverpool fans at least were exemplary. The game itself has already been dicussed at length, so no need to rehash that. And so to the aftermath, which to be frank has left me wondering why I still follow football at all.
Firstly, the idiots who did the Munich gestures at the end of the game should be banned for at least the rest of the season. How stupid, how tribal, and how selfish to do that on a day that was supposed to be about showing the world that we were better than that, that we were dignified in our grief, and that the loss of 96 lives was far more important than any stupid rivalry. If the United fans want to make a show of themselves, let them - they'd have come out of it looking ridiculous. Instead of that the actions of a handful of ****wits make us look like hypocrites.
And as for the Mark Halsey abuse on Twitter. It's a game of ****ing football, and he's just a bloke who happens to referee for a living. Yes, he made bad decisions, but **** happens, and next time it might be us who benefits from a bad decision. To make death threats, to say that you wish he'd died from cancer, that almost defies belief. Who are these ****ing idiots? How dare they purport to represent the rest of us and our club? And really, when as a club we are grieving for the senseless loss of so many lives, who goes on a social media platform and wishes suffering and death on a person because he might have made an error of judgement? Jesus, words fail me.
Anyway, rant over.
Good post JP.
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