Club Victims Culture

The Liverpool victimisation protocol has come into effect following the loss at Old Trafford. Hard done by? Yeah possibly. Did Man Utd out perform Liverpool? No. But, that’s the way the Maryland chocolate chip crumbles. Liverpool Football Club is synonymous with tragedy, victims and black armbands. I actually believe that Arsenal have missed out on any kind of media love in the way that Liverpool and United have as we have fortunately not had a tragedy connected to us. And before I go any further I would emphasise that the tragedies we all know about were just that real, terrible tragedies.

Every fan of every club has a gripe, be it the manager, the players, the board, referees or lack of divine intervention but the Koppites take the McVities rich tea when it comes to seeing conspiracy and plotting at every turn. The whims of the refereeing gods have been in Liverpool’s favour often enough. One has to only look at the amount of penalties given at the Kop end of Anfield over the years.

The hysterical hand wringing that has gone on today over Steven Gerrard’s sending off is typical. This season we have seen identical challenges penalised with red cards. As regards Berbatov, let us not forget that diving is a broader problem and something that Gerard has himself taken part in. All clubs that go to old Trafford face a bias be they Blackpool or Burnley and that’s part of the home advantage that most clubs would wish to have, the thing is that for twenty years Anfield was the home of such bias.

Fans often feel that their club is being victimised or unfairly treated. God knows as an Arsenal fan I’ve felt that over the years, however, it seems for the Liverpool fan it is their default position. Unfortunately at times the ‘scouse’ stereotype is further propagated by the victims of Merseyside.