Just when you think Covid19 has shut down all banner activity – even allowing for the brilliant but, sadly, static display on the Kop – along come two reminders of what we’ve been missing .

The first is an article from Brooklyn-based sports and culture commentator Cady Siregar entitled Football love letters: The incredible science behind iconic stadium songs, which not only looks at LFC banners but also the club anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone and at songs and chants more widely, including a discussion of racist chants and the particular case of Tottenham’s ‘Yid’ tag. Not always a comforting read, but a very good one.

Much more celebratory in tone is a brilliant documentary Flags and Banners: the art of Liverpool FC, put together by that very talented and all-round nice guy Phil Reade from LFCTV.

This film is itself a hymn to the makers – and sometimes shakers – of the flags and banners that are so much a part of the LFC identity. It includes contributions from people who are as knowledgable as they are passionate about the topic, including: legendary flag and banner-makers Peter Carney (@soccrinthecity) and Frank Graceffa (@GraceffaFrank); members of @SpionKop1906, the group of supporters who not only bring together volunteers to make sure the red flags are flying on match days but are also responsible for some of the best examples of the art (and you can see Emma below in the act of painting one of them!); This is Anfield‘s Chris McLoughlin (@chrismackop); playwright Dave Kirby (Brick Up The Mersey Tunnels, @DaveKirby01); sports historian and author Gary Shaw (@GaryMerseybox); ultra fans @HuytonFattie and John Mackin (@Mackin_John1); and former players and eternal Scouse legends John Aldridge (@Realaldo474) and Phil Thompson (@Phil_Thompson4) who give a unique perspective on it all from a players on the pitch perspective.

If you haven’t seen it already, get on it – well worth the cost of a month’s subscription to LFC TV – or just signing up for the free month trial!

(Confession time: I had the privilege of contributing to both, but they’re still worth a close look!)

Normally, I only write about fans’ banners or occasionally other activities, but these are not normal times. The brutal killing of George Floyd, an African American, by a police officer on May 25 has sparked worldwide protests and condemnation. The Liverpool squad, inspired it seems by Virgil van Dijk and Gini Wijnaldum have decided to take a stand, or more accurately, take the knee. Their decision to take part in such a visible protest with the clear intent that it spread worldwide through social and other media is unusual, though not unique in the history of the club as players have frequently supported other campaigns, but generally of a more local nature such Robbie Fowler’s support for the Liverpool Dockers’ strike and, of course, the Hillsborough Justice campaign.

This form of anti-racist protest came to prominence in 2016 when US quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose to adopt the stance rather than stand for the US National Anthem in protest at the ongoing cases of police brutality and as part of the broader #BlackLivesMatter campaign. Since then, ‘taking the knee’ has become popular amongst other sports-players as a way of showing solidarity and support for anti-racist campaigns.

Wijnaldum’s tweet is interesting from a linguistic point of view, not only because it doesn’t mention George Floyd specifically – he is safe to assume people will know what it refers to, an acknowledgement of the worldwide condemnation it has rightly led to – but because of its deployment of different elements.

First there is the simple statement, ‘Unity is Strength’, familiar to anyone who has taken part in any trade union activity and a familiar sight as an LFC fan banner:

Normally, I would only focus on banners and fan postings, but these are not normal times. The killing of George Floyd, another African American to die at the hands – or in this case, ironically, the knee of a police officer

The image and phrase have been retweeted by the rest of the squad, demonstrating their unity on this issue, so combined with the photograph of a circle of players (itself a symbol of unity) it speaks not only to the protest it’s now part of but also to the unity of the players themselves on this issue.

The saying is then literally underscored with the raised fist emoji, which has largely been claimed by progressive movements, made even more potent here by displaying it in five colour variations (one for each continent?) to further express solidarity across different ethnic groups. Alongside the raised fist is the globe emoji. As my colleague Philip Seargeant has pointed out in his recent book The Emoji Revolution, the globe emoji was used by alt-right groups as an anti-semitic slur playing into the ‘Jewish global conspiracy’ trope, but it has increasingly been reclaimed by the left as a symbol of solidarity. Again, its circular form ties in with the players in the centre circle and even, essentially, the shape of the raised fist. The line of emoji is completed with a red heart. No need to say anything about that!

The tweet is rounded off with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and the triangle of fists (the triangle being the most solid of geometrical shapes) which links to the ongoing flow of tweets about the protests.

So, text, image, emojis, hashtags and embedded links are all deployed in a unified message to express a unified response.

Of course, as is the nature of Twitter, there have been a variety of responses to Wijnaldum’s tweet (and other players’ who have sent out the same message), mostly positive but others drawing attention to a 2011 incident involving former player Luis Suarez who racially abused Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. On that occasion Suarez’s team-mates publicly showed their support for him as seen in this response to Wijnaldum:

The optics, of course, are not good: white T-shirts, the colour of innocence, and a jubilant Suarez leaping in the air, fist raised celebrating a goal depicted in the club’s colour red. In a 2019 interview on Sky Sports, Jamie Carragher, the then vice captain, apologised to Patrice Evra for the lapse in judgement in a discussion of racism in football in general and the Suarez incident in particular that was far more charitable, nuanced and enlightening than much of the discussion on Twitter. Anyone with a stomach for the FA’s report on the incident can find extracts from The Guardian or the whole report is also available from the FA website. It is however interesting that two expert witnesses, Professor Peter Wade, a specialist in race and ethnicity in Latin America, with particular emphasis on black populations, genetics and sexuality, and Dr James Scorer, an expert on national and regional identities in Latin American cinema, including that of Uruguay, were called to give evidence on what Suarez had said (in Spanish) to Evra and whether it would be deemed racist or not. The Spanish word he used ‘negro‘ can, they said, be used both negatively and affirmatively in the South American context and, not surprisingly, Suarez claimed he fell into the latter camp whilst Evra perceived it as racist. The FA decided that in a UK context the term would more likely be both intended and received as racist. Whatever your view – and I’m with the FA on this – it does show how language can be pivotal.

There is, however, no possibility of misunderstanding the Liverpool squad’s use of both verbal and body language to send out a very clear signal: #BlackLivesMatter

It’s now thirty-five years since the Heysel Stadium disaster in which thirty-nine fans, mostly Juventus supporters, lost their lives at a football match against Liverpool when a wall dividing the fans of the two teams collapsed following a series of clashes.

This banner, which says ‘In memory and friendship’, is one of a number that have been made and displayed by fans over the years to express their regret and solidarity about what happened that night, and to go some way to healing the wounds between and within the two clubs and sets of fans. The banner pictured above was made by Liverpool supporters, including Peter Carney, Alf Langley & Billy Merritt. It was created from a Football Arts Initiative project which sought to help heal wounds. This second one is, I’m told, by Peter Sampara in which me brings together the two teams’ colours , national flags, team emblems and YNWA. (My thanks to Peter Carney for some of the background information on the banners.)

To mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the tragedy, the club unveiled a plague at Anfield:

And in 2014, when the teams met again, there was another display of ‘friendship’ :

The recurring use of Italian symbolises the effort to reach out and show both empathy and solidarity. Liverpool fans are often attacked by their detractors for only seeing themselves as victims but the evidence clearly shows otherwise.

This isn’t the place to go over the events of that night and there are many accounts of it online. One of the more remarkable is Laurent Mauvignier’s (2008) novel In The Crowd (translated by Shawn Whiteside) which takes a somewhat oblique look at the events and aftermath of that day. It makes for very harrowing and uncomfortable reading but very worthwhile in helping us understand the complexity of emotions and contexts of that time.

In Memoria e Amicizia –In Memory and Friendship
Rocco Acerra
Bruno Balli
Alfons Bos
Giancarlo Bruschera
Andrea Casula
Giovanni Casula
Nino Cerullo
Willy Chielens
Giuseppina Conti
Dirk Daenecky
Dionisio Fabbro
Jacques François
Eugenio Gagliano
Francesco Galli
Giancarlo Gonnelli
Alberto Guarini
Giovacchino Landini
Roberto Lorentini
Barbara Lusci
Franco Martelli
Gianni Mastroiaco
Sergio Bastino Mazzino
Loris Messore
Luciano Rocco Papaluca
Luigi Pidone
Benito Pistolato
Patrick Radcliffe
Domenico Ragazzi
Antonio Ragnanese
Claude Robert
Mario Ronchi
Domenico Russo
Tarcisio Salvi
Gianfranco Sarto
Giuseppe Spalaore
Mario Spanu
Tarcisio Venturin
Jean Michel Walla
Claudio Zavaroni

Riposare in Pace – Rest in Peace

Today is the thirty-first anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster and were it not for the corona virus lockdown there would be memorials being held by the Hillsborough Family Support Group at Anfield Stadium (this year was to be the last held there) and by the Hillsborough Justice Campaign (HJC) at the Hillsborough Survivors’ Memorial in the city centre (the HSJ will be holding a virtual memorial on its Facebook page at 15.00):

Unable to come together physically, people have been finding their own ways to mark the anniversary, such as colouring in Laura Deakin’s ’96’ design posted at the top of this page (available from her via Twitter @lozzydeaks) and placing it in their windows as a mindful way of remembering the 96 and showing solidarity with the families and survivors at a time when people are also posting images in support of the NHS during the corona virus lockdown.

The two have sometimes come together Peter Carney, creator of the iconic Hillsborough has also felt impelled to create banners to mark the passing of one of the victims of the

corona pandemic, Liz Glanister and it seems appropriate today to mention her here:

Liz Glanister was 68 when she died on April 3. She had worked for many years a nurse at Aintree University Hospital, where she probably contracted the virus. In her honour, flags were flown at half-mast in the city and three civic buildings were bathed in blue light – she was a life-long Everton supporter – hence Peter’s blue and red design for the banner he made in tribute to her. Sorrow shares its colours.

Remembering Hillsborough has always been about more than the events of that day, it’s also about remembering all victims of disasters where injustice has occurred and it seems likely that corona will emerge as another of those when the spotlight turns from getting through the current crisis to an inquiry as to how it was mismanaged by the government. When that day comes it is important that names and lives like Liz Glanister’s be recorded and remembered, just as today we remember those of the 96, their families and friends, the thousands of survivors, some of whose lives have been cut short by the disaster and many whose lives have been irrevocably changed and even blighted by it, and the campaigners who have fought three long decades for the truth and justice which one day will hopefully be delivered.

…as the Red Sea Departed for Kyiv

Tomorrow, I believe, Liverpool will win their sixth Champions League trophy. Moses may have parted the Red Sea to lead his people to freedom, and Mo Salah will surely lead the Sea of Red on to victory.

Normally, I talk about one or two banners a post but this time, I’m just going to let the banners do the talking. I’ve collected all these from Twitter over the last week so this is just a random sample. My thanks to mates and family who’ve sent me some directly and my thanks to all those unnamed heroes who’ve made or paid for the other gems on display.

There’s the usual mix of wit, song lyrics, Kop chants, puns, word-play (definitely had enough Chicken Kiev for a while) profanities, tributes to loved ones, erudite quotes, nods to past, present and future legends, local references and. of course, some cruel jibes at Everton’s expense. A couple of them, I have no clue what inspired them (306 Lift Crew?) but I like them.

Allez, allez, allez!

A quick update with just two hours to go…

And so the morning after… Liverpool lost, and wandering around the pitch they looked truly devastated – none more than Karius, whose hands may have been weaker than we would have wanted but whose heart proved as Scouse-red as you could ever wish for. But losing isn’t always failing, and losing to the 13-times and 3-times back-to-back champions is definitely no failure, more a statement of ability and imminent potential.

Like it says above, ‘We go again forever’.

Liverpool 3 – Manchester City 0 – April 4, 2018

Cometh the chant, cometh the banner…

Song titles and lyrics have always been a feature on fans’ banners, from ‘Kenny’s from Heaven’, to ‘In this bright present‘ and so it’s no great surprise to see a chant that has become very popular very quickly, Allez! Allez! Allez! take its place in the pantheon of banners at last night’s Champions League quarter final against Man City, which, by the way, Liverpool won 3-0, just in case it escaped your attention. Here are the lyrics:

We’ve conquered all of Europe, we’re never gonna stop, from Paris down to Turkey, we’ve won the fucking lot. Bob Paisley and Bill Shankly, the fields of Anfield Road, we are loyal supporters, and we come from Liverpool. Allez, allez allez!

So no surprise then that the banner lists not only the dates of the 5 Champions League title wins but also where they were won. This is taken up in another banner on display last night, produced by the ever-reliable Spion Kop 1906:

A novel aspect here is the black and white silhouettes of iconic buildings from the four cities that hosted those finals, Rome (1977, 1984), Paris (1981) London (1978) and Istanbul (2005). It’s interesting to note that the silhouettes seem to have been ordered aesthetically rather than chronologically so Rome’s Coliseum and Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmad Mosque flank London’s Big Ben and Paris’s Eiffel Tower. (I’ve no idea if the lads who designed the flag had any deeper Freudian motivations in inserting the two phallic structures between the two circular ones, but they’ve certainly produced a penetrating image.)

Both banners repeat the dates, and this is a common feature, emphasising the club’s history, reiterating significant moments so they become etched in the fans’ memories like 1066 and all that. Both also carry the first line of the chant so are brought into a kind of conversation with each other, repeating the message. On the surface it is simply a statement of past glories, but that word ‘conquered’ also suggests an ongoing status as victors so the banners are also addressed to its present moment, the quarter-final match against Manchester City (which Liverpool won 3-0, by the way) and speak to both LFC fans as a badge of pride and to Man City fans as a warning of who they are up against.

The banners speak of continuity, then, just as the song lyric does with its reminder that ‘we’re never gonna stop’. What this does is remind us that the club is its history and that there is something transcendent about it. In turn, this reminds me of the philosophical paradox of the ship of Theseus. According to Greek myth Theseus amongst other things, slew the Minotaur, was King of Athens, and the son of Poseidon. So beloved was he that after his death the Greeks decided to preserve the ship he had sailed on in his many heroic adventures. As time went by, plank by plank had to be replaced due to ageing. At some point every single plank and nail, anchor and sail had been substituted so was it still the ship of Theseus? In fact, was it even still the ship of Theseus once the first plank was replaced? So it is with football teams. Clearly, nobody who played in that first 1977 final still plays and yet we still speak of LFC as a single entity. How to resolve the paradox? Well, I’m no philosopher, but I suppose it all depends on what you think constitutes the club – the parts (players, managers, owners) or the whole of its history. To fans it is always the latter that endures and that, equally, is why football endures, so it’s not so much as this team or that team, this manager or that makes Liverpool but the endless setting sail, the conquering journeys through Europe creating the treasure trove of memory, a collective memory that belongs to no-one and everyone. Allez, allez, allez…