Man City & Liverpool rivalry has grown toxic, it‘s down to them to fix it

It has never been easy between Manchester City and Liverpool. When City went to Anfield in the winter of 1981 and won 3-1, their goalkeeper Joe Corrigan was struck by a glass bottle on the pitch and manager John Bond instructed his players to take to the floor when their bus was pelted with missiles, as they left.

Amid the toe-to-toe competition of the past five years, there has been a more shrill and personal kind of rivalry, though not until now have we had one of these clubs applying to the local council to erect nets around supporters at games. A move which has echoes of the way fans were artificially contained in the game’s dark ages.

Their contemporary rivalry is more complicated than the brutality of the 1980s. It was never more vivid than on a May night in London in 2014 when Greg Dyke, chairman of the FA, stood up to speak at the end-of-season football writers’ dinner.

Effusing about Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool, Dyke neglected to mention that City had beaten them to the title by two points. City staff were seething, but also resigned to what they believed to be a truth about the world they occupy. That Liverpool get a disproportionate amount of acclaim.

There has been no thaw in the nine years since. Relations have deteriorated, with injustice claimed on both sides. There was the stoning of the City team coach in 2018.

The inflammatory and highly offensive suggestion that Klopp was ‘xenophobic’ for highlighting City’s vastly greater wealth. The inflammatory conduct of both managers when the two teams meet.

Such is the background to City’s wish to place nets in front of, and perhaps to the sides of, away fans, at their own discretion.

The catalyst and last straw, from their own perspective, was the Carabao Cup tie between the two clubs before Christmas when a 15-year-old girl was hit by a beer pot, in a despicable, criminal act by a faceless member of a lunatic fringe who has never been caught.

Has it really come to this? Do City see the consequences? It is hard to see how a modicum of cordiality can be maintained if Liverpool’s supporters walk into the Etihad on April 1 — or any time soon — to find they are netted and enclosed.

Environments like that have a particular resonance for Liverpool and everyone knows it. This would carry a deep significance. It would make the enmity materially worse.

In the long history of club rivalry, there is a tradition of sorting it out yourself. Bob Paisley travelling into Anfield on the Manchester United team coach in the 1980s, with the vitriol between those sides’ supporters at its worst.

Sir Alex Ferguson demanding his own supporters treat Arsene Wenger with respect. City contributing intelligently to efforts to make the Manchester derby a less dismal prospect for Greater Manchester Police.

The risk of missiles being thrown by away fans at the Etihad would also be reduced if visiting supporters were not positioned directly above home fans, as Liverpool’s were at that tie in December.

The stadium’s usual Premier League away area — all tiers of a segment in the South Stand — is insufficient in cup ties because of the greater away allocation.

City say that this configuration for cup games allows visiting supporters safe entry and exit and that it was recommended by the all-important Safety Advisory Group, which is tasked to keep fans safe.

They also say that this problem did not come around until they faced Liverpool that night in December. But given the rivalry and the recent history of animosity, positioning away fans above home supporters made no sense. It was asking for trouble.

The relationship between these two clubs will not be easy in the months ahead. City also know that if they are in breach of Premier League financial rules, after Monday’s charges, Liverpool could sue them.

But there can still be more progressive, pragmatic solutions to this relationship problem than a containment strategy which feels like a step right back into the 1980s.

There are plenty of intelligent, sane voices on both sides of this divide. It is for them and their respective clubs to find a way through the minefield.