Police seized thousands of copies of Manchester United fanzine ‘Red Issue’ outside Old Trafford, before Saturday’s ill-tempered game against Liverpool, due to a potentially offensive image inside.
The Daily Mail reports how a spoof Ku Klux Klan mask was printed inside the magazine, with ‘LFC’ and’Suarez is innocent’ written on it.
The mask was meant to highlight how ridiculous Liverpool’s staunch defence of Luis Suarez was, despite the striker being found guilty of racism towards Patrice Evra during the reverse fixture, at Anfield in October.
The police action is a little far-fetched in my opinion. Rival football fans having a go at each other and their respective club is part of the game’s make-up, if we took that away it would be very boring.
The producers of the magazine were mocking the fact that some Liverpool fans, and their manager, still defend Suarez, despite the Uruguayan himself admitting to using racially abusive language – the magazine was clearly not trying to incite racism in any way.
Perhaps a thousand people at a football match wearing KKK masks is not what the cameras want to see, but the context behind the mask, if explained, would not be offensive.
There is also a case of free speech. The magazine has not incited racism, and is free to print what it wants. Likewise the people who bought the magazine, should not have had it confiscated.
Maybe the police were just trying to calm tensions before such a huge grudge match, but Suarez himself ensured that wouldn’t be the case 30 seconds before kick-off.
