A man has been charged over a football shirt which appeared to refer to the 97 fans who died due to the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.
James White, 33, from Warwickshire, was charged with displaying threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
During Saturday’s match, a photo of the back of a man wearing the number 97 and the words “Not Enough” on a Manchester United top was widely shared on social media.
The Metropolitan Police said 22 people were arrested at the FA Cup final on Saturday.
The game, between Manchester City and its cross-town rival Manchester United, was interrupted when items were thrown onto the pitch. The police said the offences people were arrested for included possession of drugs, drunk and disorderly and assault.
Time and a court proceeding will determine what punishment Mr White faces; no doubt his defence will say he was merely “having a laugh” and it was a joke in very poor taste, no doubt the free speech/hate speech debate will rear its head again surrounding this incident. Still, it also brings another question to the fore.
Why do people in the West go mad about football?
In days gone by, you could have argued that it was a man’s only time to escape the daily grind of a barren, hard existence in some soot-covered northern town. But not today; food is varied and accessible, social media, computer games and hundreds of TV channels provide limitless thrills and stimulation, and the world has no end of things to do all wrapped up and presented in every colour of the rainbow, so why do they go nuts at the football?
Well, perhaps all the social media, TV, takeaway food, porn on your phone, a constant want for the next shiny plastic thing and the constant strain of being frightened to say or do what you think all goes away at kick-off.
On game day, it’s the only way some people can do what comes naturally to most: they become tribal. They gather with other people of the same tribe, go to their temple, sing their hymns, and worship their G… millionaire mercenary players.
People like James White would rightly be very angry if some Liverpudlian mocked the death of the Manchester Arena victims, but this is somehow different; White and the like get so involved in their tribe that mocking the deaths of rival tribe members probably felt like fair game.
The Homeland Party would happily see an end to this tribalism around football. By all means, support your teams, but we would like to see a world where good, hardworking people channel that tribal energy into helping their own people.
Family, Community, Homeland.
