Luton Town have published a statement in response to the tragedy chanting from some spectators at Kenilworth Road during Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Liverpool.
Chants of ‘always the victims’ and ‘feed the Scousers’ were abundant and very much audible during the game, and the Bedfordshire club officially addressed the matter on Monday night.
A statement was published on their official website (it can be read in full here), with reference made to ‘reports of inappropriate chanting towards Liverpool supporters’ which ‘may be interpreted as being in relation to tragedies that have affected Liverpool FC in the past’.
It was mentioned that ‘What has quickly become evident is that a number of people may have taken part without knowledge that the words used were in relation to the Hillsborough and Heysel tragedies, and we see the route to persuading supporters not to repeat these chants in future is through communication and education.’
Luton has vowed that ‘any perpetrators could face stadium bans and potential criminal prosecutions’.
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At least Luton have now made a statement on the matter, even if it took more than 24 hours after the final whistle for the club to officially condemn an issue which was painfully obvious from the first few minutes of Sunday’s match.
It’s better than no acknowledgement at all, but it still has a sense of punches being pulled, considering that the chants were so blatantly audible, even to those watching live TV coverage of the fixture.
The imbeciles responsible for the tragedy chanting had a clear intention of upsetting the families of the 97 people unlawfully killed in the Hillsborough disaster, so to claim that the perpetrators indulged in those chants ‘without knowledge’ of the horrific events of 15 April 1989 is preposterous.
The same goes for the wording that the chants ‘may be interpreted as’ mocking the 97 – they’ve sadly been aired often enough in the past for it to be crystal clear that such bile is intended to cause further pain to the families of the bereaved.
Also, there was no reference in Luton’s statement to the chanting which mocked poverty in Liverpool, with ‘feed the Scousers’ clearly heard throughout Sunday’s match.
For us, the club’s correspondence didn’t go far enough in its condemnation of the cretins behind the disgusting chants yesterday.