Manchester City "Allez" Controversy

Overview

Manchester City "Allez" Controversy refers to a video of the Manchester City Football club singing a parody of the Liverpool fight song "Allez Allez Allez" after winning the 2018-2019 Premier League season by one point over Liverpool. The parody, originally written after Liverpool lost the Champions League final the previous year, mentions fans being "battered in the streets," which some interpreted as a reference to Liverpool supporter Sean Cox being attacked outside the semi-final in Kiev.

Background

On May 13th, 2019, after Manchester City secured the Premiere League title with a 4-1 victory over Brighton and Hove Albion.^[1] Following the victory, players and staff on the team plane were taped singing a parody of Liverpool's fight song "Allez Allez Allez." The version they sang was in reference to Liverpool's Champions League performance the previous season. The video was tweeted by @YourMCFC (shown below).

Developments

Some fans were quick to interpret the video as being a direct reference to an attack on Liverpool supporter Sean Cox^[2] outside of the team's final in Kiev the previous year. Twitter user @FutebolJay tweeted that in response to the @YourMCFC tweet, gaining over 200 retweets and 3,600 likes (shown below, left). User @blakeyarns stated he couldn't support the video, though he was unsure if players were singing along, gaining over 890 likes (shown below, right).

Manchester City denied that the lyrics were in reference to Sean Cox or the 1989 Hillborough Disaster which saw Liverpool fans crushed in a rush of people, killing 96 and injuring over 700, and said it was a "well-known football chant."^[1] A question about the controversy gained over 2,900 points on /r/OutOftheLoop.^[3] Sean Cox's brother Martin stated "Singing and chanting those words, it's like it gives the impression that it's OK for people to carry out attacks like that on people in the streets."

Search Interest

External References