FA contact police and condemn Hillsborough chants heard at Luton vs Liverpool
The Football Association have released a statement condemning the tragedy chanting heard at Kenilworth Road on Sunday.
A group of Luton fans mocked the Hillsborough disaster during their Premier League game against Liverpool, which ended in a 1-1 draw. The fixture was televised, with Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher urging those fans involved to be "better than that".
The FA have now broken their silence on the matter. "We are aware of the tragedy chanting during yesterday's Premier League fixture between Luton Town and Liverpool, and we are seeking observations from Luton Town and further details from the Police.
"We strongly condemn chanting of this nature and will continue to work closely with our stakeholders across the game, including the clubs, leagues, fan groups and the relevant authorities to proactively address this issue."
The Hillsborough disaster occurred in April 1989 ahead of Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. The tragedy led to the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans, with hundreds more suffering injuries in Sheffield that day.
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Carragher, who spent his entire professional career at Liverpool, said on commentary: "At the start of the season I was involved in something about tragedy chanting and supporters coming together. I have just heard something a couple of times in this game.
"Supporters have got to have rivalry but we are better than that. A lot of clubs have been guilty of that over the years but football fans are better than that."
Jamie Carragher has urged football fans to be "better than that" (David Loveday/TGS Photo/REX/Shutterstock)Jurgen Klopp also criticised the tragedy chanting. The Liverpool boss didn't hear the chants but said: "Shame on everyone who said it."
The Premier League promised to crackdown on tragedy chanting at the start of the season. Their statement read: "Premier League clubs unanimously agreed at the Annual General Meeting today to a series of new measures to address the unacceptable rise in anti-social behaviour involving football tragedy-related chanting, gesturing, graffiti, online abuse and other behaviours last season.
"The measures are the output of a cross-football working group which was set up in December to explore available options to challenge the normalisation of such distasteful behaviours and incidents. The issues have continued to cause significant distress to the victims’ families, survivors and affected club supporters, in addition to damaging the reputation of the clubs involved and football in England and Wales.
"The action will focus on criminal prosecution, the regulatory environment, enforcement, online abuse, education and communications."
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