Liverpool Football Club have issued a statement slamming Mayor Joe Anderson’s comments about the potential of the Premier League re-starting with games being behind closed doors at some point in the future.
Speaking to the BBC, Anderson said:
“Even if [football] was behind closed doors, there’d be many thousands of people who would turn up outside Anfield. There’s not many people who would respect what we were saying and stay away from the ground, a lot of people would come to celebrate so I think it’s a non-starter.”
The comments caused some anger from those who thought the Mayor was attacking football fans for no reason, and it appears his thoughts have annoyed the Reds too.
They issued the following statement on their website:
“As a club, we are aware of and disappointed by comments attributed to Mayor Joe Anderson in a media interview which was published today.
As well as a lack of evidence to support such claims, we would also point to recent discussions with Mayor Anderson relating to the possibility of any behind-closed-doors football, which concluded that it is important that key stakeholders across the city continue to engage and work collaboratively.
In recent weeks, we have engaged with supporters’ groups who have informed us of their determination to respect social distancing measures and, in the event of a resumption of football being announced, we would continue to work with them and other key stakeholders in keeping with our collective desire to achieve this crucial objective.
As part of our ongoing operations, we are in regular contact with the Mayor and his office and we hope these conversations can continue.
In the meantime, our primary focus remains responding to the humanitarian crisis which continues to unfold and in particular providing ongoing support to various NHS initiatives and those experiencing food poverty and social isolation.”
Read Liverpool Verdict
Liverpool’s statement was very scathing of Anderson, whose comments did little to build up the trust of football fans in politicians.
Liverpool, and the Premier League as a whole, have contacted numerous stakeholders and supporters to discuss this ongoing, fluid situation and it looks like they, and some football fans in general, felt like Anderson’s comments were completely uncalled for.
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