Focus on the football, Liverpool chief urges fans

Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre has warned fans and players alike must ensure the focus is on football when they meet Manchester United in the FA Cup tomorrow.

Feelings between are running high in the wake of Luis Suarez’s eight-match ban for racially abusing Patrice Evra.

Rumours abound about what will be worn, written and chanted at Anfield but Ayre stressed that, although he did not want the arch-rivalry to be diluted, there was no place for hatred.

“It is the FA Cup, a great competition in English football and one we have a great history in and we want that to be what everyone focuses on,” said Ayre.

“We mustn’t detract from fans chanting and singing at each other but it needs to be a rivalry thing rather than a hatred thing.

“It is about a great spirit and a match between two great teams and it is certainly not hatred — there is no place for hatred in football.”

In the past, rival fans have traded insults with sickening songs about the Munich air crash and the Hillsborough disaster.

The Suarez affair will only have heightened tensions and encouraged some supporters’ tribal instincts further but Ayre stressed there had to be boundaries.

“The banter on the terraces is great, both managers feel that as do the players,” he told BBC Radio Merseyside.

“Far from trying to neutralise it we want our fans to be as vocal as they normally are against Manchester United.

“We definitely don’t want to detract from that but both clubs have histories which have some things in people don’t want to hear being sung about and so we want the fans to get behind the team, have a bit of fun and enjoy the game.”

Meanwhile former United defender Viv Anderson is confident Manchester United skipper Patrice Evra will to overcome the verbal abuse he could face.

Anderson, England’s first black international, said: “Patrice should definitely play, 100%.

“There will be a backlash, but he did nothing wrong, so why should he not play?

“He is experienced enough and old enough to deal with it. It won’t be the first time he’s been verbally attacked. If you cannot deal with it then you are never going to make a career for yourself.”