Hillsborough disaster chants are a stain on English football and need to be stopped

The silence observed by the Anfield crowd ahead of the game against Arsenal was moving and impeccable. Not a whisper was heard on Merseyside and the Kop stood in reverent silence to remember the 97 who were unlawfully killed due to the failings of the emergency services on 15^th April 1989.

After the match, Jurgen Klopp described the minute’s commemoration as the “most respectful minute of silence I have ever witnessed” while local MP Ian Byrne, a survivor of the tragedy, described the visiting Arsenal fans as “really classy, you could hear a pin drop.”

That we are at a point where Arsenal’s fans need to be praised for respectfully marking the anniversary of that dreadful day is galling. Nobody should ever fail to come home from a football match, and nobody grieving a loved one should have to hear opposing fans mocking their deaths. On the 5^th April this year, the day after Liverpool played out a dire 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea released a statement condemning chants aimed at the victims of the Hillsborough disaster by their own fans.

"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."

Two sentences – perhaps not sufficient when the grim reality is that ‘tragedy chants’ seem to be on an inexorable and unpleasant rise. Manchester United fans sang the same songs in March despite a joint plea from Klopp and Erik ten Hag, a year or so after the club had to release their own statement condemning United fans who joined in another grim chorus.

Nor are Manchester United and Chelsea alone in having fans who see fit to belittle the suffering of the families, friends and communities of the 97 people who lost their lives in Sheffield 34 years ago. Chants aimed at Hillsborough, Heysel and the Munich air disaster have all become a common refrain in the stands of British football stadia.

These aren’t the same as the crass chants, mocking the opposition, which have been a hallmark of terrace humour for decades. Stupid jokes in song form rarely have the potential to cause serious harm – chants about tragedies which claimed so many lives do. There are many survivors of that grim day still going to Anfield, many who lost children, partners and siblings who still travel to away games clad in red and have to hear those vile quips coming from the opposite end of the ground. The harm that these songs can do should be obvious to anyone with a shred of empathy.

In early November the FA made a statement describing the Hillsborough chants as “abhorrent” and “highly offensive” and condemning them, and also praising the work of survivors’ groups who try to educate opposing fan groups about the effect the disaster had on their communities – but the FA has stopped short of offering any kind of action plan for stamping the practice of tragedy chanting out, nor has it yet punished any clubs whose fans have taken part.

Earlier this week I wrote a piece about the ineffectuality of moderate punishments for fans involved in racist chanting – the occasional stadium ban here, a section of seats closed for a single game there – and suggested that stronger sanctions on a longer basis need to be imposed. The same principle applies here – these chants are hateful, offensive and cause harm to their victims. They need to be stamped out, and if clubs cannot find a way to curb their fans’ behaviour, serious punishments should be considered by authorities further up the chain.

We cannot go on allowing people to mock the dead of Hillsborough. We cannot permit a situation in which the families of those who never came home have to hear the names of the lost dragged through the mud. We should never accept those who have dedicated their lives to seeking justice for the dead having their name impugned. It may only be a “small minority” of idiots – always a small minority, always the first thing people have to say – but until someone takes responsibility for shutting them up, it will continue and it will spread.

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Let’s hope the FA or the clubs step up to the plate soon, because the sound of those songs is a sickening one and has gone on for far too long - and let us all hope that on Saturday, as people around Liverpool gather to remember their loved ones, that they are allowed the space to mourn and grieve in respectful peace.