Last weekend’s Luton vs. Liverpool fixture was plagued by tragedy chanting from home supporters, and Luton‘s manager, Rob Edwards, has apologised.
Luton‘s response as a club was disappointing. An extremely weak statement appeared to deflect blame and minimise severity of the issue.
The club’s manager, Rob Edwards, has now commented too, saying: “A statement has gone out from the football club and I want to apologise as well.”
It’s worth noting that Edwards isn’t in any way at fault. He added: “We don’t condone that, of course, and there’s an investigation going on at the moment.”
Meanwhile, an internal investigation is ongoing at Luton and the FA has been in contact with Bedfordshire Police to “seek observations” and “further details.”
Unfortunately, these incidents are commonplace when Liverpool play and can be heard at nearly every match, with varying numbers taking part.
Luton‘s response was nowhere near strong enough and gave off the feeling they didn’t understand. You can judge for yourself.
The statement read:
Luton Town Football Club is saddened by reports of inappropriate chanting towards Liverpool supporters during yesterday’s Premier League fixture at Kenilworth Road.
The atmosphere inside the stadium was electric for the most part of a pulsating game, in which Rob Edwards’ side came close to pulling off one of the results of the season.
While we do not wish to dampen the atmosphere at our home ground in any way, we are extremely disappointed that a small number of supporters soured the occasion with chants that may be interpreted as being in relation to tragedies that have affected Liverpool FC in the past.
The Club condemns any kind of chanting that knowingly seeks to divide, and our safety and security team launched an internal investigation at the earliest opportunity.
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.
On this basis we are reviewing CCTV and media footage from the match, and will speak to witnesses to identify individuals who may have taken part. Any perpetrators could face stadium bans and potential criminal prosecutions.
If anyone has information and video evidence that will support the investigation, please email [email protected] with the subject ‘Inappropriate Chanting’.
The eyes of the world are upon us in the Premier League, which we are all learning quickly to adapt to, and we have to remind our supporters that you are all ambassadors of the Club and it is your responsibility to behave according to the rules of the ground. This includes understanding the songs that cannot be sung in line with the Love Football, Protect The Game campaign.
On behalf of all at Luton Town, we would like to wholeheartedly apologise to anyone offended by the chants heard during yesterday’s match, and will continue to work with supporter groups to educate fans on chants that are classed as tragedy abuse by football authorities, the police and CPS.
As a result of the crush at Hillsborough in 1989, 97 Liverpool fans died.
In 2016, an inquest jury ruled they were unlawfully killed.
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