LoveCity said:
Gary James' latest book talks about it a little. All tragedies should be remembered and mourned but none should be exploited.
RIP to them all.
I write a lot on the disaster for "Manchester A Football History" and, as with everything I do, I tried to get back to basics and research it from first hand accounts, interview people involved, look at newspapers from the time etc. Too many people when commenting or writing about any event, particularly connected with a football club, focus on the current view and the present day perceptions and myths. I would say this but if you want to know exactly why the disaster matters and what part City played then please read that book (get it from the library if you can't buy it, but please read it to understand).
My aim was to understand what the disaster meant primarily to Mancunians and Manchester in 1958. This was a major tragedy that affected all at the time. It didn't matter whether you were Red or Blue it affected you.
In 1958 City actually had more tributes and information on the disaster in their match programme talking of 'our loss' than United, and that shows how we felt at the time.
City players lost their best friends (anyone who has sat and listened to an ex-Blue talking about losing his best friend and having to tell that player's parents that their son was dead cannot ever use Munich as an insult - it insults ourselves when we do that!). Since the book came out I've also sat and talked with the son of a Utd player who never met his father (his mum was pregnant at the time of the crash) - it really hits you when you hear those stories.
I've also interviewed City squad members who were waiting at the Kardomah cafe in Manchester for their United equivalents as they always did after training, when they heard the news. Very sad.
My writing (and I also wrote an article for free for the MEN to ensure they got a balanced view of what the tragedy meant to Manchester in 2008) focused on the impact in 1958 and to some extent what has happened since. I discovered how badly some former players had been treated by Utd (but it was a different age and other clubs, including City, had treated their own injured players appallingly as well... but the difference was that this was an international tragedy and perhaps should have been viewed differently) and highlighted how there appeared to be 3 levels of victim as far as the wider world was concerned - players then journalists then others. To me all should have been treated the same.
By 2008 the focus was rightly moving on to all the victims, although even now few talk about what happened to the family that lived in the house that the plane hit and how serious injury affected at least one member of that family - and still does assuming she's still alive (I include a little in Manchester A Football History). However, just as the world was starting to talk of the victims in equal terms two negatives as far as I'm concerned happened. First: the FA at an international at Wembley shortly before the 50th anniversary had a minute's silence but listed only the MUFC players not the journalists/others, not the former England capt Frank Swift (they missed this again last night!). Second: City started to focus on Frank Swift as if he was the 'only' victim worth remembering - this was as bad as Utd focusing only on their players and did nothing to prove that Manchester had been together in 1958.
All victims should be remembered equally, so please let's not focus solely on Frank either as that kind of tribalism would have appalled him.
The point of all this I guess is that the Munich tragedy was a tragedy for all the victims, the people injured both in the plane and in the house at Munich, and for anyone with a Manchester background. Back in 1958 Manchester viewed the tragedy as one that affected all and club rivalries did not come into it.
EDIT: I included scans of some of the MCFC match prog tributes in 1958 on my facebook and twitter @garyjameswriter yesterday if anyone's interested: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.facebook.com/GaryJames4?ref=hl#!/photo.php?fbid=10151252064967816&set=a.10150562075652816.375742.289818652815&type=1&theater" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.facebook.com/GaryJames4?ref= ... =1&theater</a>
