Tragedy chants are deeply damaging and cause enormous pain - they have to stop

07 April 2023 , 12:16

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Ninety-seven Liverpool supporters were unlawfully killed at Hillsborough in 1989 (Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

Exactly one year ago, April 7, 2022, a friend of mine took his own life.

He left a teenage daughter who bravely spoke about her dad after his funeral.

“He’s a Hillsborough survivor,” she said. “He’s struggled a lot since then and always struggled a lot in April in the lead-up to the anniversary.

“We knew he was struggling but … none of us expected he would have done anything like this.”

Neither did any of his mates. He was a cracking lad, laugh-a-minute, fanatical red.

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He left no note and no-one could be certain that Hillsborough was a defining element in the personal tragedy that unfolded.

But one thing is for sure. He carried the haunting memories of Hillsborough to his dying day.

And on the anniversary of his death, his friends and family will look at the news and find another football club has apologised for tragedy chanting.

For goodness sake, it is that commonplace, we have even got a catchy name for it.

It is that commonplace, we would be wrong to vilify any one set of fans.

It is that commonplace, we have got to the stage where two managers, Jurgen Klopp and Erik ten Hag, actually had to plead with people not to sing about the Munich air disaster or the Hillsborough tragedy.

It is that commonplace, we can almost predict, word for word, the club statements that follow.

Chelsea issued a statement after fans chanted about the Hillsborough disaster at Tuesday's match against Liverpool (Getty Images)

Here is Chelsea’s, issued after the match against Liverpool.

“Chelsea FC condemns the inappropriate chants heard from some home fans during this evening’s game.

“Hateful chanting has no place in football and we apologise to anyone who has been offended by them.”

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Inappropriate? Swearing when there are children in earshot - that’s inappropriate.

Using the tragic loss of 97 people to taunt fellow supporters? That’s just inhuman.

“We apologise to anyone who has been offended by them.”

Anyone? Anyone? Everyone has been offended by them. Everyone with a shred of decency, that is.

But no wonder these sort of statements sound so perfunctory …because they are just that. They pay lip-service to the idea this re-emerging repugnant trend will be tackled seriously.

It should not be that hard to identify the perpetrators. We live in a time when pretty much everything we say and do is recorded in some way.

If the authorities - and that includes the police - have the will, these people can be tracked down.

Dean Foster, Kyle Mortlock and Thomas Mott are Peterborough United fans who have been banned from football matches in the United Kingdom for three years after police proved they sang about Cambridge United supporter Simon Dobbin, who died five years after being attacked at a match in Southend in 2015.

Cambridge fan Simon Dobbin passed away in 2020, five years after being attacked at a match (Cambridge News)

In their own lip-service statement about the chanting at Stamford Bridge, the Premier League said they “continue to treat this as an unacceptable issue and are seeking to address it as a priority.”

Well, get on with it. Clubs whose supporters are persistent offenders should have their away ticket allocations reduced or removed, for a start. Clubs should be compelled to pursue individuals who take part in the chanting.

The ultimate threat for serial offenders should be points deductions but that will never happen.

As a private members club, the rules need to be voted in by those members and there is no way they would take that risk. Or any risk.

Perhaps the arrival of an independent regulator will change that.

Something needs to change.

Jurgen Klopp and Erik ten Hag joined forces last month to call for an end to the chants (Getty Images)

But in the meantime, maybe those who chant about tragedies for ‘fun’ might stop and consider the effect those tragedies have on so many people.

According to Peter Scarfe, of the Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance, three fans who were there on that fateful April day in 1989 have taken their own lives in the past year.

So, before you next chant about any tragedy, think of them and their families.

And if you have not got a heart or soul, or one iota of human decency, carry on.

Andy Dunn