Football: a game of chants?

by Nathan Middleton
Blue Tuesday contributor, BBC Radio Manchester

"I've heard some of the most vile things you can imagine" - Craig Bellamy

We've all been there. You're at a game and suddenly one section of the crowd starts the Munich chant. You know it's wrong but what can you do? And is there ever an excuse for it?

After Craig Bellamy revealed to BBC 5Live some of the comments directed at him at football matches, it raised the question of what is, and what is not, acceptable to shout from the stands.

Players warning over fans' abuse

He said: "If someone pays their money and wants to shout abuse at you, I don't have a problem with that, say how useless you think I am. It's when they starting talking about your wives, it's when they start shouting abuse about your kids."

Adding: "I lost my cousin last year. I've gone on to do a warm up on the pitch and I've heard a few people shouting 'how's your dead cousin?' You know this is not football...

"I've heard some of the most vile things you could have imagined at football, and that for me is when the crowd should come together and point these one or two idiots out."

Munich

Blue Tuesday also looked at the relationship between City and United fans, particularly from City's perspective in reference to the Munich disaster and the term 'Munichs'.

BLUE TUESDAY BBC Radio Manchester's weekly programme about Manchester City Presented by Ian Cheeseman and Paul Lake Tuesdays, 6pm - 7pm Listen Again: Blue Tuesday

Blue Tuesday presenter and former City player Paul Lake said: "For me personally it's always been a monkey on our backs for years, its entrenched in some City fans psyche...

"It's a way of talking, a way of describing United fans. Obviously they call us the bitters or the massives and maybe it's time that we came up with something different as well to get away from that horrible term."

The show also spoke to Kari Dodson, the great granddaughter of Frank Swift, the former Manchester City goalkeeper who was then working as a journalist when he died at Munich.

Speaking to the program she said how for her Munich was not a footballing issue but "an issue about basic humanity".

Hatred

The Munich disaster was not a red and blue issue but a human one; people lost sons, brothers, dads, and uncles in the disaster.

United: Ian Cheeseman at the Munich memorial in 2008

The hatred some fans feel towards each on derby day often stems from the tiring slanging matches, whereas if more was done to embrace the banter and rivalry between the clubs it would be more enjoyable for both sets of supporters.

Stuart Brennan, City reporter for the Manchester Evening News, hit the nail on the head when he described this banter as "the essence of football".

Light-hearted jokes between players, fans and managers are a real part of what makes football so appealing to us the fans.

But when that chant crosses over to hatred, racism, or vicious personal insults is when you question the type of game you are following.

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