The Dreaded Derby Minute of Silence

By: Martha | January 22nd, 2008

Old Trafford tribute Thing have been moving along so well for Manchester United’s recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster at the Manchester derby next month. The plans have been applauded by anyone and everyone, the non-commercial nature of the event has been lauded, and even Manchester City have been hugely supportive, and will be wearing special kits of their own to recognize the occasion. With everything that’s being put into this, and all the different groups that have come together to make it happen, you’d think the minute of silence would be the easy part. (And you’d be wrong.)

There is serious concern among City fans that some of their compatriots, despite the absolute solemnity of the occasion, will take it upon themselves to screw it up, by whistling, or otherwise disrupting the minute of silence planned in recognition of the 23 people who died the plane crash. So, rather than trying to reign in the supporters — an impossible task, apparently — the general secretary of the City’s supporters club has written directly to United, “pleading” with them to change the minute of silence into a minute of applause, thus taking control out of the hands of the assholes who would otherwise call attention to themselves by causing trouble. For their part, City are privately sending letters to the fans who have tickets to the away match, begging them not to humiliate the club, while on the outside they nod calmly, and agree to do whatever United asks.

The proposed solution makes a lot of sense and will probably be adopted by United, who don’t want to run the risk of anything affecting the tone of the pre-match ceremony, but it’s pretty depressing that the only way to take the power away from the asshole element is basically to give them the power to determine how the 23 deaths will be recognized.

ETA: As Brian pointed out in the comments, United have issued a statement saying they’re rejecting the applause idea, because they find it an inappropriate recognition of the 23 victims of the crash. Oh, is this a recipe for disaster.

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Fraser Mitchell

I totally agree with Manchester United's stance on this. Applause is completely inappropriate. If Manchester City fans cannot control themselves for 60 seconds then they should be evicted from the ground, or identified after the event and banned.

Its a ridiculous idea to suggest that United have taken the stance as a PR stunt against City. Its up to City fans to take responsibility for themselves and the reputation of their club, which they supposedly love. If they can't they should be ashamed.
Kayannie

I can see this being a bit of a disaster because there is going to be a couple of idiots who care more about hating us than the 23 people who died. But at the end of the day it is going to be the City fans who look like idiots. It will be them who the media will crucify... And they are the ones who will be accused of forgetting their own history. It is one thing to be a moron, but to disrupt a minutes silence that is for one of your own? That is on another level.
Weston (@wpazzurri)

Any twit who does start yelling or whistling should (and probably will) get mauled by the surrounding fans, though after all this media attention i'd like to think that no idiot would dare at this point.

I can just see the headlines for the next day:
"Honorary Moment of Silence Turns Disastorous"
ben

Has there ever been, in the history of sports, a perfectly observed moment of silence? There's always an idiot drawing attention to himself, or someone who isn't paying attention and makes noise, innocently unaware of what's going on. I've been to youth matches where they had a moment of silence for whatever, and some parent's cell phone went off right in the middle and it killed the moment. You can make a big announcement, send out letters, tell everyone as they enter the stadium, it doesn't matter. You can't keep 70,000 people quiet for even 30 seconds.
Nick

Brian, not sure I agree with your theory. With family members of those who died presumably at the match - it's highly unlikely United would allow City fans to insult their memory simply to harm City's reputation. Don't you think?
Shazback

I find it particularly sad that there is such "fear" around the minute of silence. After all, if Liverpool were able to have a minute of silence at Anfield (they played Z-Cars) in honour of Rhys Jones (an Everton fan murdered a month earlier), then why shouldn't Citeh fans manage to respect 23 dead players, amongst whom Frank Swift, a Manchester City goalkeeper who played 338 league games over 16 years, and never played for another club than City, winning the FA Cup in 1934 and the League in 1937! Sure, it's a minute of silence that's held at Old Trafford, in the memory of United players, but the death toll also took the lives of journalists (including Swift), club staff and airplane personell. What's more, sevral England internationals died in the air disaster : Swift, Byrne, Pegg, Taylor, and Edwards, who was considered to be one of the best England players of his era. There was also the death of Ireland international Bill Whelan.

I'd have been very dissapointed if the minute of silence is changed into a minute of applause, but I'll still be very dissapointed should the minute not be respected by all. Even if it's just a few people who want to cause a ruckus.
Martha

I agree with you completely in theory, roswitha, but I do wonder if, in this case, it's not taking a risk that's bigger than the statement it's making -- the press coverage is likely to focus on misbehavior, if there is any, and at least a segment of the United support is likely to fixate on that, as well. It seems like it might be a lesser evil to give a little bit and avoid creating a situation in which things could be made very bad.
roswitha

It's the right thing to do, not giving in to the request for applause, both ethically and in the pragmatic, reputation-building way Brian imagines [with him on the conspiracy theory - those Man United guys are smart that way]. How the crowd reacts to the proposed minute of silence is not going to make a whit of difference to the memory of the people they are meant to be honouring, which is what matters, really. I feel very slightly sorry for City, though - if their hooligans destroy the moment they're going to be mauled by everyone else who will forget that their own clubs are by no means free of the They Are Not Real Fans! element in the crowd.
Martha

Oh, this is so bad. SO bad. I can already smell the post-match vitriol from here.

(I'll go add that to the post, too, Brian -- thank you.)
Brian

Martha, there's a statement on the Man Utd website saying that they're rejecting the applause idea because "We do not feel that applause is appropriate given that 23 people died."

Is there any chance this is all a diabolical plan to let City supporters bring a PR disaster upon themselves while increasing sympathy for United? There's no chance of that, right? I'd like to think I'm crazy for even having that thought.