How Man Utd handles those who mock Hillsborough

Antoine Zammit

Daryl Woodrow (a Liverpool fan) received disgusting abuse from some Manchester United fans on Twitter.

Daryl decided to write a letter to Man Utd.

From: Daryl W.
Date: 16 September 2011 11:10:31 PM GMT+01:00
To: “enquiries@manutd.co.uk” <enquiries@manutd.co.uk>
Subject: Urgent matter
Hi,I’m writing this email to bring to your attention the sickening behaviour of Man Utd ‘fans’ on twitter.
Below is some screenshots of fans taunting Liverpool fans regarding the Hillsborough disaster.
I’m sure you would agree that banter has it’s limits, and respect is something of a rare commodity
between fans from either clubs. As a proud Liverpool fan, I would also distance myself from those
who would bring up the Munich air disaster in a disrespectful way.I feel that it is your duty as a club,
role models to the millions of fans that you address this problem
and also try and encourage a bit more respect amongst your fans.
I appreciate that this is only a small minority of your large fan base,
but things on twitter can easily escalate.

I apologise about the large size of the pictures, writing emails on iPads are not as easy as I thought.
I hope you can appreciate the seriousness of what I’m trying to put across here and act accordingly.
I appreciate you cannot take passion from fans, but you can highlight what is and isn’t acceptable.Thank you.Regards,
Daryl Woodrow
Actually Daryl was surprised that Manchester United replied to his email.
From: <charter@manutd.co.uk>
Date: 19 September 2011 04:26:26 PM GMT+01:00
To:
Subject: Complaints  Ref:22604

19th September 2011

Dear Mr Woodrow

Charter Complaint Reference: 22604

Your email to enquiries@manutd.co.uk was passed to the Customer Care Team today for formal

documentation in the Club’s Charter Complaints system.

It is always disappointing to receive correspondence of this nature and we share your abhorrence of these so called ‘fans’.

The Hillsborough and Munich Air Disasters form such a huge part of both our clubs’ history and show how important

football is to people, particularly in the North West of the country. 

Why people choose to behave like this is beyond the comprehension of decent people.

Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen are big fans of Twitter and they often use this media to

interact with fans and football supporters of from all over the world. 

It is a sad reflection on our society that there are people claiming to be supporters of football who think

this kind of disgusting behaviour is acceptable.

Regrettably we are not able to intervene with any inappropriate tweets, however we would strongly advise

you to report this matter via the Twitter help centre.  You can copy and paste this link into your browser:

http://support.twitter.com/groups/33-report-a-violation/topics/122-reporting-violations/articles/
15789-how-to-report-violations

We can assure you that we as a Club take this matter very seriously and whilst we accept

there will always be an element of healthy banter between our two clubs, we will do our best to promote a good relationship

with all football fans and aim to eradicate this kind of behaviour.

Yours sincerely

Shelly Peacock
Customer Care Team
Manchester United Limited

While I applaud Manchester United for replying to Daryl it does make me wonder why both clubs (Liverpool & Manchester United) don’t form a joint task force and rout out these perpetrators. As you all know this doesn’t just happen on Twitter (and other social medium) but also in the stadia.

Why are there no life bans on fans who mock Hillborough, Heysell & Munich?
I am sure that both clubs would have other decent fans who would fill their seats.

I have blanked out the name of the 2nd one to protect Daryl.