I wasn’t surprised that there was so much bile and, frankly, outright lies on social media following Real Madrid’s defeat of Liverpool in Big Cup. Some of it was pure schadenfreude, often from people with little or nothing to celebrate in their own lives, some not. Either way, it was an ugly look.
I wanted Liverpool to beat Real Madrid because I like them. I like the club, I like the history, I like the manager, I like the players, especially the way they play. And through their recent history, mainly the tragic elements of it like Heysel and Hillsborough, they have attracted both sympathy and hatred.
Real Madrid, I don’t like. They are permanently in debt, currently to the tune of £1 billion, for one thing, but are happy to live well beyond their means in order to remain at the top of the European tree by stuffing their team with footballing superstars, the so-called Galacticos. They were also a diplomatic and political tool for the fascist dictator General Franco. And of course the club is fiercely Catholic which explains in part the joy of the Papist hordes who wanted to see the hated Protestant club Liverpool defeated. Imagine wanting a club to win because you think their God is better than the other team’s? They got their wish, although I doubt whether the game was in any way influenced by imaginary supernatural dictator. It was Vinícius Júnior who actually scored the winner, not God. But it was the ugliness of some of the other stuff I found so distasteful.
Today was the 37th anniversary of the Heysel tragedy, where 39 mostly Juventus supporters died. The culpability of some Liverpool fans was undeniable and today the club commemorated the day with the laying of flowers and wreaths by club officials. Recently, we remembered the 33rd anniversary of Hillsborough which claimed the lives of 97 Liverpool fans. Yet when the events of last night were unfolding, some witless individuals, consumed by their hate and bitterness, were attacking Liverpool and its fans.
We still don’t know the truth of what happened last night in Paris, but we do know that ordinary fans, including women, children and senior citizens were attacked by police officers using CS gas. We know that many Liverpool fans were denied entry to the stadium and we know some had fake tickets, bought in Paris. We know that a large number of French youths got in with the Liverpool crowd and caused a great deal of trouble. And we know that Merseyside police described the behaviour of Liverpool fans as “exemplary”. But haters gonna hate.
It was all the fault of Liverpool fans because “they always play the victim” said one. Oh really? Was that what Hillsborough was about then? Oddly, that wasn’t the conclusion of the panel appointed to look at the evidence. Liverpool fans didn’t play the victim at Hillsborough: they were the victims. But I suppose we are dealing with Sun readers who still believe the filthy lies that were told in the aftermath.
Last night bore no resemblance to either Heysel or Hillsborough but that didn’t prevent the hard of thinking that it did. Only if you knew nothing beyond the names Heysel and Hillsborough would you make such a crass comparison, only if you wanted to inflict your faux anger. And if you still think Liverpudlians are still playing the victim, check your history. In the 1980s, evil prime minister Margaret Thatcher favoured the ‘managed decline” of the city, the same Thatcher was presented as a saint in, yes, The Sun.
Schadenfreude is in itself not a good look. That’s what I have seen most of since last night from people who don’t really like the friends of Franco and Rome, but have an irrational and ill-formed idea of what Liverpool is and what it stands for, not least at its premier football club. And the attacks remind us what a nasty, petty country we have become. But if schadenfreude isn’t a good look, pure jealousy is an even worse one.
Real Madrid deserved to win Big Cup because they scored a goal and Liverpool didn’t. That’s how football works. To weaponise the tragedies of Heysel and Hillsborough is simply pathetic and the people who do so should know better. The fact that they don’t tells you all you need to know about Britain today.
