Manchester City face a hostile reception at Anfield on Sunday in their first match since being found guilty of more than 100 Premier League financial breaches.
Liverpool supporters are expected to use banners, chants, flags, scarves, flares and smoke-filled pyrotechnics to express their anger when the league leaders visit Merseyside.
An independent commission found that Manchester City and their Emirati owners had arranged “sham” deals to artificially inflate revenues and reduce costs by more than £900 million between 2009 and 2018. The club denies any wrongdoing and has appealed against the verdict.
The alleged breaches took place during a period in which City won three Premier League titles and a number of other trophies, while Liverpool struggled to end their dominance of English football.
Liverpool fans plan Anfield protest
Spion Kop 1906, the Liverpool supporters’ group that organises flag and banner displays on the Kop, has urged fans to make their presence felt from the start.
“There’s loads riding on Sunday’s game on and off the pitch, but it’s down to us as a collective to bring the noise and get behind the team,” the group said on X.
“Bring your flags, bring your scarves and be at it from the very first minute.”
Posts circulating on social media have also promoted a “bus greeting”, encouraging supporters to gather near the stadium several hours before kick-off. One post described the fixture as “LFC vs Cheats”.
Merseyside Police said an appropriate policing operation would be in place for the match.
City have experienced a hostile welcome at Anfield before. Their team bus was attacked with bottles and flares before a Champions League quarter-final match in 2018, leading to Liverpool being fined €20,000 by Uefa.
Dom Farrell, author of a book chronicling Manchester City’s rise from the third tier to European champions, expects Sunday’s contest to be “massively hostile”.
“If they were to win against Liverpool and then beat an off-form Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday, you really get a siege mentality going,” Farrell told AFP.
“But there’s also a decent chance they get turned over, and then it just starts to feel like you’re in this sort of dead zone waiting for the verdict.”
Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville described the fixture as potentially a “brutal day” for City, who have a 100 per cent record and sit six points above Liverpool at the top of the table.
“If they want an understanding of how angry the game is going to be, then Anfield will tell them like you would never believe,” Neville said on The Overlap podcast.
“I suspect there may be banners. There will certainly be chanting. There will be a reception like you have never seen for them at Anfield.”
