The ship which sits proudly above the red devil on Manchester United’s crest often goes unnoticed, such is our familiarity with the global brand that the logo has become.
The ship represents the Manchester Ship Canal; it was completed in 1894 and meant goods were able to bypass Liverpool’s ports and be transported straight to Manchester, resulting in substantial job losses on Merseyside and great resentment from the Liverpudlian population.
This is popularly cited as the root of a bitter rivalry which exists between the two industrial cities; a rivalry which is always evident when Liverpool F.C. meet Manchester United F.C. and has led many experts to label it the biggest game of football in the world.
Liverpool dominated English football for the 20 years between 1970 and 1990, a period in which they won eleven league championships and four European cups. However, from that moment up until the current day, Manchester United have responded under the guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson.
They have now overtaken Liverpool’s famed 18 league
titles and, although they are still two trophies behind them in terms of the
Champions League, they remain England’s biggest football club despite surges of
success from Arsenal, Chelsea and, most recently, another vicious rival in the
form of Manchester City.
Manchester also retaliated culturally. Liverpool’s famous
music scene, led by ‘The Beatles’ who took the world by storm in the 1960s, was
replicated in Manchester with the emergence of ‘The Stone Roses’, ‘The Smiths’
and ‘Oasis’ to solidify their position as the leading city of the pair.
The rivalry has become so bitter that when the sides met
last Sunday, there was a fear that Manchester United fans would disrupt
Liverpool’s tributes to the 96 supporters who died in the infamous 1989
‘Hillsborough disaster’.
The case relating to the scandal was finally closed this
month when an independent panel concluded that multiple failures by emergency
services should be held responsible for the deaths. Sunday’s game was the first
time Liverpool had played at their home, Anfield, since the ‘justice for the
96’ campaign was granted its wish, allowing those who suffered to rest in
peace.
It seems extraordinary that football would lead any
fellow human beings to dishonour the practices which would take place in
Liverpool on Sunday, but United boss Ferguson still felt the need to distribute
letters to the travelling fans, encouraging them to respect the remembrance
service.
Of course there were still an idiotic few who jeered as
‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ was emotionally bellowed out by 40,000 sympathisers; the
minds of some fans are so polluted by rivalry that their loyalty clouds their
judgement of what is simply right and wrong.
Similarly in the past, a few Liverpool supporters have
crudely taunted Mancunians about the Munich air disaster which killed 23
people, including much of the team nicknamed ‘The Busby Babes’ alongside
journalists and supporters.
However, crucially, a memorial bouquet of flowers was
placed outside the stadium, signed ‘The silent majority at M.U.F.C.’; it was certainly
a humbling and truthful image which reflected the many who were able to lay
their bitterness to one side in favour of humanity.
The match didn’t continue as smoothly, it maintained the rivalry between the clubs by featuring a sending off and a late goal from Robin Van Persie which gave the visitors the victory and epitomised their ability to go one better than their rivals in recent years.
However, the rivalry on the pitch is something that no football fan wants to lose. The united front between the majority of both sets of fans as well as staff and players of the clubs was a truly proud moment for English football and both cities.
The feud will remain, but Sunday showed that, in the face of adversity, thousands are able to put the most intense of differences aside in order to respect justice.
