On Sunday, Manchester United and Leeds United met in a hate match at Elland Road, Leeds.
The nature and status of the meeting was felt if not on the field through fierce duels and amounts of emotion, in the stands where the teams’ supporters had their own match within the match. Among other things, the United supporters sang “You’re going down” after Marcus Rashford’s 1-0 goal to mock Leeds for their table position.
But there were also chants that crossed the line, which both clubs later came out and condemned.
It is said that Leeds supporters started singing about the Munich disaster, when a plane that was supposed to take Manchester United’s team, leaders, journalists and supporters to the club from Belgrade to Manchester, but crashed in Munich. A total of 23 people died.
The United supporters then responded by singing about Istanbul, which refers to an incident in 2000 in which two Leeds supporters lost their lives in the Turkish city.
“Both clubs condemn in the strongest terms the chants that were sung about the tragic and historic events during today’s match. Such behavior is unacceptable and we want to work together with supporter groups, the Premier League and other authorities so we can remove it from football,” the clubs write in A statement.
The match ended 2-0 to Manchester United.
