Show of solidarity between Roma and LFC fans planned for Sunday

AS Roma Ireland and Irish Liverpool Reds, LFC’s biggest fan group in Ireland, have invited their members to watch the Giallorossi take on Juventus after Liverpool’s final game of the Premier League season against Brighton.

The event, which will be held at Murray’s Bar in Dublin on May 13, has been organised to bring both sets of fans together to honour Irish Liverpool supporter Sean Cox who remains in a critical condition in hospital after being attacked outside Anfield last month.

Since the incident in Liverpool, which saw two Italian men charged and remanded in custody ahead of an appearance at Liverpool Crown Court on May 24, both clubs have shown their support for Sean’s family.

A GoFundMe imitative, set up by Emmet Kavanagh, from Irish Liverpool Reds, has raised over €87,000 for the Sean Cox Fund, and on Sunday, AS Roma Ireland will present the group with a cheque for €500 to contribute to the collection.

Heading into the match at Anfield, there seemed to be a lot of mutual respect between the clubs and even the fans – is that how you felt?

Stefano Sale, president, Roma Club Ireland: “Some of our club members who went over to Anfield described the atmosphere as being absolutely fine, up to a certain point. Then it all changed about a couple of hours before kick-off. Sad to see that happening just after what both football clubs did together, especially the day before when the Roma players went to the Hillsborough memorial.”

Dan Geoghegan, group admin, Irish Liverpool Reds: “Yes, 100% from what I have heard and seen on TV.”

Was there much interaction between the two fans clubs going into the first game?

Stefano Sale: “The atmosphere was great at Murray’s Bar in Dublin, hundreds of Liverpool fans together with our fans roaming around, drinking and singing. Lots of mutual respect and no bother whatsoever, before and after the game. That’s the way!”

Dan Geoghegan: “We weren’t at Anfield but we held a joint event with AS Roma Club Eire and both sets on fans got on well.”

What was your initial reaction when you saw the shocking scenes outside Anfield and heard about what happened to Sean?

Stefano Sale: “I thought, ‘Here we go again - the usual suspects, people who simply don’t go to the stadium to watch football but go there for other reasons.’ And it was shocking to hear Sean was seriously injured.”

Dan Geoghegan: “Shock, sadness, anger and disbelief.”

How did it make you feel to see fellow ‘fans’ doing this to a 53-year-old Irish fan?

Stefano Sale: “Cowards. They aren’t football fans. Call them thugs or criminals - whoever they are, irrespective of jersey colour or nationality. They need to be punished and isolated by every single football club. In this respect, President Pallotta is totally right. Let’s act!”

Have you been in touch with Sean’s family or friends?

Stefano Sale: “Because of what happened, we thought Sean’s family deserves privacy at the moment. At the same time, we are proud to be part of the Irish Liverpool fans’ initiative to support Sean and his family. We are with them with heart and spirit.”

Dan Geoghegan: “Yes. Emmet, one of our admins, has been in touch with Sean’s relations.”

After the horrible events, it seemed like the entire fan base was being tarred with the same brush because of the actions of 20 or so people. How difficult is this to deal with when the vast majority of fans from all clubs are just normal supporters?

Stefano Sale: “So frustrating. After what happened, I did not feel comfortable wearing my Roma jersey in public. I would get the odd bad eye by anyone in the street or down the local supermarket in Dublin. The media certainly negatively influenced public opinion. But it would have been the same the other way around. Football clubs need to deal with such minority crowds, outside the fan base. It is our duty to identify them and to make sure they no longer enter football stadiums. 99% of football fans are clean. The technology is there, we need to make sure we catch the offenders and set examples. Let’s not get our image be spoiled by a group of thugs.”

Dan Geoghegan: “It must be awfully difficult because these people are clearly a minority. Every club has them attached, including our beloved LFC. The only way to remove them completely is for clubs to work together.”

Did any of your members go to Rome and if they did, how was their experience?

Dan Geoghegan: “Yes, many of our fans made the trip. They enjoyed it a lot and there were no reports of anything bad from our members.”

Where did the idea to host the joint night come about?

Stefano Sale: “Our club members had met before during the two semi-finals. When we told them we were fundraising for Sean, the idea of having a joint event came about. It’s an opportunity to reinforce our friendship and socialise together by watching their game versus Brighton and our game versus Juventus in the same place.”

Dan Geoghegan: “Well, we had the two games together in the same venue and AS Roma Club Eire wanted to make a donation to the GoFundMe page so the idea came up from that. We selected Liverpool v Brighton and Roma v Juventus to do a joint event of solidarity.”

Stefano Sale: “We live in Ireland, we share the premises, we share the love for football. It felt so natural for us to try to help out Sean and our Irish friends - to give them our support and contribution.”

Dan Geoghegan: “We decided to do the event to show the footballing community in Ireland that football fans are united against the sort of behavior witnessed as Anfield by an extremely small minority of fans.”

What is the objective of the night and what message are you trying to send out?

Dan Geoghegan: “The objective of the night is to raise as much funds as possible for Sean and his family and to show solidarity amongst football fans in particular LFC and AS Roma.”

Stefano Sale: “The event is a way for our fan clubs to meet up and share our thoughts and prayers for Sean Cox. The lad’s deserve a round of applause. Not only were able to raise over €85k in only a few weeks but also to raise a huge amount of awareness with 28,000 people subscribing to their GoFundMe campaign. We hope to raise the same kind of awareness also in Italy. We feel this is very important. Proud to be part of it! #ForzaSean.”