The beautiful game's ugly chanting must be silenced

"An ugly, anything goes verbal antagonism permeates much of British football culture. From Arsenal fans chanting about Emmanuel Adebayor, their former player who went on to play for Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace, "Adebayor, three died in Angola, it should have been four", through West Ham supporters doing gas-chamber hissing when playing Tottenham Hotspur and their sizeable Jewish fanbase, to the sectarian bigotry that festers whenever Celtic play Rangers, football provides opportunity and cover for the kind of behaviour regarded as intolerable in any other circumstance.

- JIM WHITE

In what may be the latest example, a man was charged with displaying threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress after wearing a shirt allegedly referencing the Hillsborough disaster at Saturday's FA Cup final.

Earlier this season, ahead of the game between the two clubs at Anfield, the Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and his United counterpart Erik ten Hagissued a joint statement condemning what they called "tragedy chanting". The rivalry between the two sides is electric enough, they reckoned, without it being bespoiled by ugly songs.

"Those responsible tarnish not only the reputation of our clubs but also, importantly, the reputation of themselves, the fans, and our great cities," said Ten Hag. Not that some of his team's supporters were listening. As their side sank to a 7-0 defeat, their response was to ratchet up the antagonism. "The Sun was right, you're murderers," some United fans sang as they stood forlornly in the Anfield Road stand. They added: "Always the victims, it's never your fault."

Challenge anyone singing - and plenty of socially aware United fans do - and the reaction is always the same: a hefty dose of whataboutery. No matter the club involved, this has long been the excuse at the football: we're only doing it to them because they did it to us first.