Liverpool and Everton call for an end to derby acrimony

Apr 2 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL and Everton yesterday united in calling for an end to the acrimony that has tainted recent Merseyside derbies.

Police are to speak to both clubs after a number of alleged incidents in Sunday’s 207th meeting between the city rivals.

Everton claim captain Phil Neville was spat on and punched by Liverpool fans as he prepared to take a throw-in, while police will also investigate reports Anfield skipper Steven Gerrard was subjected to hate-filled chants about his daughter.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez declared himself “very disappointed” by some chants from the Everton supporters during the game, which led to a strongly-worded response from the Goodison outfit.

But Benitez last night played down any suggestion of bad relations between the two clubs and called for the vitriolic chants to be eradicated completely from both sets of supporters.

“You cannot support any song that goes against anyone but especially ones against family and children,” said the Anfield manager. “It’s important to stop these things and concentrate on the football.

“But I don’t think the clubs have any problem, they have respect for each other.”

Everton spokesman Ian Ross expressed his concern that future matches could become even worse unless action is taken now.

“There is almost an accepted level of abuse that takes place in all derby games,” he said. “The Merseyside derby is usually laced with humour but on Sunday that was not the case. I think both sets of supporters crossed the Rubicon and went that step too far.

“From our point of view we would like to see this reined back in and we could return to a situation where the Merseyside derby, going back 15-20 years, was seen as the friendly derby.

“We don’t want a situation where this starts to snowball and the meetings next season are even more acrimonious than this one was.”

Television cameras captured Neville being abused by several home fans in the second half during which Gerrard faced a torrent of abuse as he walked to take a corner in front of visiting fans.

“Police will be speaking to the clubs involved,” said a spokesman for Merseyside Police said.

Dave Lewis, the force’s football liaison officer, who travels abroad with the teams when they play in Europe, will conduct the discussions.

Ross added: “We felt it necessary to try to involve the safety officers and police because we cannot have a situation where supporters are having physical contact with professional footballers during the game.

“We want to make sure that doesn’t happen again at the Merseyside derby or any other game.”