Chants

CHANT

I was standing in the Kop, smelling the scents of a crowd enjoying themselves, looking up at a beautiful blue sky embracing a muscle warming sun, watching superb displays of sublime skills, youth football mixed with cup competition thrills, tension and chants of “We won it three times”.

The perfect afternoon of watching my clubs young boys run rampant across the deliciously manicured pitch was sullied, dirtied and smeared by THAT chant. Liverpool were playing extremely polished football.

The small away gathering boasted children, CHILDREN! Of all the sections of society to blood a social routine on, the groans were audible across the Kop. We knew what they were singing, we knew we could retaliate, yet we did not. Why? Is it due to our severe attitude to social convention? Were we more eloquent and chose to express ourselves in a less fervent fashion? Or was it because we didn’t want our children witnessing us, as parents, teachers of social niceties, how to behave like a torturous victim when faced with a wrong.

Those of you on Twitter who follow me know how wound up I get when I see abusive tweets about The Tragedies. A blatant ignorance pervades a place I frequent, a place I like to come to when I feel a little uninspired. Stories and statistics, friendships and national debate stimulate me but I fail to see why I would want to ingratiate myself to a section of society who feels the need to rush headlong into scar tissue that runs a mile wide.

Heysel, 26 years ago last month. I follow many Juventino, I know how hurt they still are, I follow hundreds of Liverpool fans, I know how ashamed they are. Yet, somehow the two clubs have come together, not perfectly, not entirely, but together. The chant that Manchester United fans sing, so loud and proud, is an insult to their lost ones. A birch on the hands held out for comfort. The chant affects the Liverpool fans too, nowhere near as much as Juventus fans, but a quick, sharp thwack on the back of fans who, even though they weren’t there, flagellate themselves yearly when the anniversary comes around.

I wonder if Manchester United fans are predisposed to hack away at the bandages of that horrific European Cup final? Obviously I’m generalising and I’ll be called out for that like a cheap hack with a clutch of gossip whispers. But am I onto something? Do we teach our future generation of fans how to hate, or at least emotionally injure? Are we directly responsible for the interpretation of banter becoming so leftfield from the original that we are looking at a phenomenon that is built from lust for humiliation?

These questions have been haunting me as I strive to make sense of that beautiful match day, the football and the restraint shown by players and fans of Liverpool was admirable and heart warming. Yet was I at an event that was unique? If I’ve seen the tweets from Manchester United fans then I have seen an equal number from the Liverpool fans. Appalling though it is to me, anathema almost, I feel there is a need to level the same desire for explanations at my own set of fans, more so. I say it is anathema, as to revel or exude delight in the hurt of others is utterly alien to me.

I have contacted the community spokesperson for Liverpool’s official website, I received inadequate responses from Matt. However, I’m more tenacious than a few emails, I wont be held to a response that places the responsibility of abusive chants and their after affects in the hands of the supporters. We, as bastions of representation, do have the ultimate accountability for our actions, our behaviour towards our fellow football fans, but the clubs have an immense amount of power in the responsibility they can show. Flexing a muscle would give the world a sharp reminder of how utterly devastating an institution can be when it wants to encase its reputation in a shell of respectability.

With the clutch of emails sent, I started to spread about the idea, on Twitter, of a supporter force or group, who can police or gather information from the terraces on suspected abusers. I also floated the idea of interclub match days based upon better relations for fans, education programs in schools, programs aimed at supporters leaving and entering the grounds. Victims groups having discussions with known offenders to re-educate them. There are a myriad of possibilities and each carries its own pitfall or an ability to offend.

The only way that a program of events and actions would succeed would be down to the supporters pressuring the club to help end the chants. Fans can help sway the boards decision in sacking a manager, they can turn on a player and see him sold soon after, they can become internet terrorists and shut off the supply of credit to two cowboys. Can they stop scenes like those on Match of The Day, were Liverpool fans, at Old Trafford, made aeroplane gestures with open arms and screamed with blood red faces, “Munich!”? Can we do that? Can we march around the club, can we boycott the merchandise and sing protest from the terraces? Somehow, something in me thinks it’s a no, but wouldn’t it be great if instead of one person emailing or writing to the stadium manager, it was two or three? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be unique and be the first club to eject and ban supporters who have chanted abuse, only letting them in when they complete a set amount of re-education programs?
I’ll march for that. Under a big banner that says, “No more shall I abuse, no more shall I chant, instead respect the opposition, for he is my fellow man.”

You can contact me on twitter @malbennett29