By Dan Ripley
Liverpool have hit out at sections of their fanbase following reports that ‘homophobic chanting’ was directed at Chelsea loanee Billy Gilmour during their 3-0 win at Norwich on Saturday.
The club reacted to a tweet posted by one of the club’s fan groups, ‘Kop Outs’, which represents the LGBT+ community, who reported abuse aimed at the Scotland midfielder.
Kop Outs posted: ‘Great result today marred by homophobic chanting by some of our fans targeting Chelsea loanee Billy Gilmour. If you can’t support without resorting to bigoted nonsense, you don’t understand YNWA [You’ll Never Walk Alone].’
The fan group posted the message having quoted a 2019 tweet from another equality organisation, ‘Kick It Out’, in reference to a ‘rent boy’ chant – which according to them has long been targeted at the west London club.
After the match, Liverpool referred to Kop Outs’ tweet with a statement on the social media platform.
The club said: ‘The chant is offensive and inappropriate – a message we have repeatedly communicated alongside Kop Outs.
Liverpool fans reacted after the match to a Tweet posted by fan group Kop Outs
Kop Outs referred to a ‘rent boy’ chant while claiming abuse was directed at Gilmour
‘We urge supporters to remember the inclusive values of the club and to refrain from using it in the future.’
Liverpool Supporters Union Spirit of Shankly tweeted in response to the news later on Saturday night: ‘Solidarity with our LGBT+ supporters & affiliates!’
Kick It Out have long campaigned for football supporters to stop making the ‘rent boy’ chants, previously stating: We are absolutely clear, the chant is homophobic and must be treated as such.’
Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah were all on target for Jurgen Klopp’s men at Carrow Road as they comfortably defeated one of the Premier League’s newly promoted sides.
Fans reacted with anger at the abuse aimed at Gilmour, with one supporter claiming that the slur indicated there was still much to be done to drive out homophobia from the game while praising Liverpool’s statement.
They said: ‘Glad you’ve said this but the fact that so many (particularly younger) fans don’t see why
that chant is homophobic shows there is still so much work to do in combatting the rampant homophobia in football.’
Other supporters claimed that the abuse lead to offending supporters being banned from football grounds as part of a zero tolerance approach on discrimination, saying: ‘Anyone caught being homophobic should be banned from the ground. There needs to be zero tolerance on all forms of discrimination.’
One fan focused on Gilmour having to suffer abuse having only just started his career, with the 20-year-old having only made his senior debut for Chelsea in 2019.
They wrote: Shame LFC fans, Such a young upcoming player going through all these sorts of things. It’s [sic] absolute disgrace. #NoToHate #kickitout.
Meanwhile Norwich fans welcomed Liverpool’s statement, saying: Thankyou for calling this out. Sorry about the few of our fans being idiots too, but was a great first match back.’
