Manchester City plan meeting over 'Munich' chants
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Manchester City will hold a series of behind-the-scenes meetings to determine an appropriate response to last night's repeated chants referring to the Munich air crash by supporters at Blackburn last night.
The Blues hierarchy have resisted the temptation to issue a knee-jerk response, preferring instead to adopt a measured approach to a particularly tricky problem.
Chief executive Garry Cook is acutely aware the club have worked tirelessly to eradicate such chanting in recent times and have taken out banning orders against supporters caught on camera making aeroplane gestures, in reference to the crash in February 1958 when 20 people, including eight Manchester United players, died following a refuelling stop in Munich.
However, there remains a section of the City support who are undeterred by such action, which some going on-line last night to defend their use of the term "Munichs" as a collective to describe United supporters as a whole, arguing it is not an offensive term.
In a week when an emotional film highlighted what happened that fateful day was shown by the BBC - which in itself drew stinging criticism from the family of former United boss Sir Matt Busby - the chants are only going to fuel ill-feeling between the two Manchester clubs, who are on track to meet in next season's Community Shield curtain-raiser at Wembley in August.
City's discussions seem certain to result in further calls to end chanting relating to the Munich crash, in the hope it can be avoided when they take part in the FA Cup final against Stoke on May 14.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments