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London’s Metropolitan Police said on Sunday that a football fan has been charged with wearing an offensive jersey to the FA Cup final that referred to the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster where 97 Liverpool fans died.
James White, 33, of Warwickshire, will appear in court June 19 on a charge of displaying threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
A photo retweeted by police after Saturday’s match between Manchester City and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium showed a man wearing a United shirt with the No. 97 on the back and the words “Not Enough.”
The English Football Association (FA) said that it spotted the offensive shirt on social media and security tracked down the man wearing it, leading to his arrest.
“We will not tolerate abuse relating to Hillsborough or any football tragedy at Wembley Stadium and we will continue to work with the authorities to ensure strong action is taken against perpetrators,” the FA said in a statement.
The Hillsborough tragedy and other disasters in the sport continue to echo in football stadiums for the wrong reasons in what the Premier League has condemned as “tragedy chanting.”
Two months ago, Chelsea apologised for its fans who taunted Liverpool visitors in chants that referred to Hillsborough. A few days earlier, City had apologized to Liverpool for similar hateful choruses of cheers.
In March, Liverpool and United jointly appealed to fans to end hateful chants before their match in Liverpool.
United suffered a 2-1 defeat in Saturday’s FA Cup final against City after two superb strikes from Ilkay Gundogan.
More than 20 people were arrested at the match for assault, drug possession and drunk and disorderly behavior, police said.