Police hunt Manchester City football fans chanting “F*** off, you f***ing yids! F***ing gas isn’t good enough for ya!”
Greater Manchester Police are hunting Manchester City Football Club fans who shouted antisemitic slogans on a tram on their way to watch their team play against Tottenham Hotspur at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium.
The Manchester City fans bellowed at passengers: “F*** off, you F***ing yids! F***ing gas isn’t good enough for ya!” They continued: “You’re getting gassed in the morning, gassed in the morning!”
Looking on was a fellow Manchester City fan, Anthony Fallon, who was horrified. He captured the incident on his smartphone, so that he could provide the footage to Greater Manchester Police. He told Manchester Evening News: “I’m not sure if there were Tottenham fans on the tram or if it was just City fans trying to cause a melée between themselves or a raucous atmosphere, but they started saying ‘come on you Spurs’. The City fans next to me, two men in their 50s, then started chanting ‘You’re getting gassed in the morning’. It was making people very uncomfortable and there was a guy who obviously couldn’t wait to get off the tram. It was like being back in the 1980s. I went to a game in Leeds in 1983 where fans were throwing banana peels at a black player. This was like a throwback to the 1980s. I haven’t heard anything like that, certainly not in the last decade. I was completely taken aback. They need to be identified. This was not just borderline racism, it was bile and hatred.”
Mr Fallon’s smartphone then caught the fans’ attention. One tells him: “Hey mate, don’t be f***ing filming everybody. I’m f***ing camera shy me, do you know what I mean? You need permission to film in public. It’s a fact so don’t do it.”
The incident took place on a Metrolink tram travelling from Market Street to the Etihad Stadium at approximately 17:10 on Saturday 21st January.
A spokesman for Transport for Greater Manchester said: “We’re extremely disappointed to see this kind of mindless behaviour taking place on a tram. This vile and hateful language has no place on football terraces, public transport or anywhere else. We will gladly work with police to bring these individuals to justice so we strongly urge anyone with any information about the incident to come forward.”
A spokesman for Manchester City Football Club said: “Manchester City strongly condemns the use of any antisemitic language and we are co-operating with the investigation into this matter.”
Greater Manchester Police have not yet issued photographs of any suspects.
We commend Anthony Fallon for his presence of mind and for ensuring that this incident was brought to the attention of the police and the media. Any witnesses should contact Greater Manchester Police on 101.
