Time to put this one to bed.
There are very strict regulations imposed on every PL club concerning offensive chanting. Offensive chanting is covered by FA rule E20.1 and sanctions against the club can range from financial penalties to partial & full stadium closure. It is the responsibility of the MCFC Safety & Security (SAS) team to ensure we're compliant and have all bases covered. The SAS has clear guidelines on what the FA deem to be "offensive" and however wrong & unpalatable it is for us, the "always the victims" chant has been deemed to be offensive, after lobbying by LFC, so falls under the E20.1 guidance.
Let's be clear here, we have NO CHOICE but to condemn it, under these rules. No choice whatsoever. So, when our SAS team hear any chant deemed to be offensive under E20.1 they have to show due diligence to the FA, which includes releasing the statement put out on Saturday, because it mitigates the sanction. The statement is a generic response to any deemed breach of E20.1 and is issued by the SAS team. You'll notice that the statement doesn't mention a specific game or chant, it's generic. The PR/Comms team don't issue it and I have it on very good authority that they don't like it and see it for what it is. The Club certainly don't like it and I'm pretty sure Pep doesn't like it, but that has no bearing on the statement whatsoever. It's all about mitigation, as is shown below, from E20.1.
A Club shall however be entitled to raise as a mitigating factor in relation to the determination of sanction only the extent to which it used all due diligence to ensure that it discharged the responsibility set out at FA Rule E20.1. In that regard, the sanction guidelines expressly refer to the following factors (amongst others) to be considered in determining sanction:
Whether the Club (and/or its officers):
* took all reasonable steps in its preparation and planning for the fixture in which the Relevant Breach occurred;
* took all reasonable steps in dealing effectively with the incident, when it arose;
* took all reasonable steps in identifying the supporter(s) involved;
* took sufficient action against those supporters responsible where those individuals were identified
Our SAS Manager has a debrief with the match referee before & after every game and despite the fact that the "offensive chanting" did not appear in the referees match report, the SAS team had to issue the club statement.
Why? Simply because they knew that the letter from Liverpool will be the post to the FA and if we had done nothing about it we would have been taken to the cleaners, with potential sanctions & the shit-storm that would become.
The club has absolutely not thrown it's supporters "under the bus" they've followed protocol, with the overall aim of protecting us from our detractors.
It's a much bigger picture than most of us will ever get our heads round.
Up the fucking Blues.
