Jurgen Klopp has called for respect, former players including Graeme Souness have said that disruption would be unacceptable and, perhaps most importantly, the Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance have said that the backlash would affect the family members of victims.
Yet critics will no doubt be circling in advance of Liverpool's Champions League game against Ajax at Anfield this evening, tuning in to see if the minute’s silence to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II is anything but impeccably observed.
Much of the attention stems from the furore around Liverpool fans booing the national anthem at Wembley last season, a long-held anti-establishment stance taken up by large sections of the club’s support. Booing the anthem has been happening since at least the 1980s but it veered into the wider discourse last season when a number of politicians aired criticism.
Liverpool fans’ reasoning is clear: it began as a method of protest against the establishment’s “managed decline” of the city and those feelings were strengthened significantly by how the Hillsborough disaster was covered up. They now point to poverty, a rise in food bank use and increasing inequality as causes for their strength of feeling towards the country’s elite.
But the anthem will not be played tonight and the HSSA have made it clear that any form of protest against the monarchy during the minute’s silence would lead to an increase in abuse directed towards survivors and families of victims from the 1989 disaster.
“Everyone attending tonight’s match, please show respect and observe the minute's silence,” the HSSA’s statement read. “You probably think that any backlash won’t affect you but it will affect us and family members with the increase in abuse over Hillsborough. Respect costs nothing and that goes both ways.”
Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish was in full support of that statement. Responding to that stance, he said: “Brilliantly put. I hope everybody at Anfield can respect these wishes tonight.”
Souness took an even firmer line and said: "Our Queen has died, show some respect. That woman was such a loyal servant to our country for 70 years. For me, she's been faultless. For any Liverpool supporter to show disrespect at this time would be unacceptable."
Yesterday Klopp had said a minute’s silence was “the right thing to do” but added that he did not feel supporters needed advice from him about respect.
“There are plenty of examples where people showed exactly the right respect,” he said. “One which surprised me and I was really proud of that moment was last season when we played Manchester United around a very sad situation with Cristiano Ronaldo ’s family. And that is what I expect. For me, it is clear that’s what we have to do. That’s it.”
In his programme notes for tonight’s game captain Jordan Henderson, who was yesterday photographed signing a book of condolence, wrote: “Before moving on to the game-at-hand, I would like to pass on my sympathies and condolences to the Royal Family following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Although we have all felt this loss as a country, it is important that we also remember that amid the national outpouring there is a family who are grieving and to keep them in our thoughts as much as we possibly can.”
