Jurgen Klopp criticizes fans for anti-gay singing

TTeam manager Jurgen Klopp from top English football club Liverpool has criticized his fans for anti-gay chants and asked them to reconsider. “When they start singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone,’ it gives you goosebumps and a boost. Other songs are a waste of time, and if you believe in what you sing, you’re stupid,” Klopp said.

In the opening game of the Premier League last Saturday, Reds fans insulted professional Billy Gilmore of hosts Norwich City and called him a “swindler”. The club condemned the behaviour, and Klopp on Thursday met Paul Aman, founder of Liverpool’s LGBT fan group “Kop Outs”.

“I will never understand why you sing a song against something on a football field,” the coach was quoted as saying on the club’s Twitter account. Moreover: “I never understood it. I never liked it.”

“Get the best songbook in the world”

Especially in Liverpool, such excesses are totally unnecessary. “We probably have the best songwriters in the world,” Klopp said. So it’s easy to stop singing the offensive song. “Now we can decide: This is no longer our song. I’m not sure if people will listen to me, but that would be cool.”

Klopp remembered the mistakes of the past. The former professional said, “I am 54 now and when I was 20 we said many things we didn’t even think about. Now, 34 years later, we thank God that it is not right to say such a thing.”

In defender Joel Matip’s view, head coach Klopp is still passionately on the sidelines of the Premier League. “He still has the drive down to the tip of his hair. He doesn’t want to achieve what he achieved before. He always wants to improve,” the former Bundesliga player said in an interview with Sky.