Football authorities craft fresh plan to tackle tragedy chanting in the Premier League

Football authorities craft fresh plan to tackle tragedy chanting in the Premier League The number of tragedy chanting incidents in the Premier League fell last season, but football supporters are being urged to help ensure the decline continues as a new campaign gets underway. According to The Times , the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) has launched a fresh appeal to fans across the Premier League and EFL, asking them to take responsibility for helping remove tragedy chanting from English football.  Built around the slogan “passion not poison”, the campaign follows guidance issued by the Crown Prosecution Service three years ago warning that such behaviour can result in prosecution under existing laws. Tragedy chanting is still a serious issue because songs and gestures linked to disasters such as the Munich air disaster, the Bradford City fire, Hillsborough and the deaths of two Leeds United supporters in Istanbul in 2000 can cause lasting pain to survivors and bereaved families. While the Premier League has not revealed the exact number of incidents recorded last season, the FSA believes that even one case is too many.  Rather than leaving the responsibility entirely with clubs, leagues or the Football Association (FA) , it wants supporters to play a central role in changing football culture. Joe Blott, an FSA National Council member, said supporters generally do a good job of policing their own behaviour and argued that their involvement would be essential to eliminating tragedy chanting. The FSA also stressed that the aim is not to weaken traditional football rivalries or remove the emotion from the game.  However, supporters are being asked to understand that some forms of abuse cross a line because real people continue to live with the consequences of the tragedies being mocked. That message is particularly important for younger supporters, who may have little personal connection to events such as Hillsborough, which took place 37 years ago.  While these tragedies happened decades ago, survivors, families and others affected by them continue to feel the impact. Fans involved in tragedy chanting, gestures or displaying offensive messages can face ejection from stadiums, bans and criminal prosecution.  In some cases, offenders have received football banning orders lasting up to four years.