Man City Fans Wave Inflatable Bananas vs Liverpool - Here’s Why

· GiveMeSport

Manchester City fans threw it back to the eighties by bringing inflatable bananas to Anfield for their clash with Liverpool.

It was always going to be a feisty affair at Anfield between Liverpool and Manchester City and visiting fans were just as up for the occasion as an angry Kop End.

A dark cloud is residing over City after the club were found guilty of serious breaches of the Premier League's financial regulations . There wasn't a more worthy opponent for their first game since the independent commission's findings were released than Andoni Iraola's Reds.

While the Kop booed City players as they made their way onto the pitch, the away end was seen producing their Poznan celebration while some waved inflatable bananas around. There's a good reason why those supporters headed to Anfield with the inflatables in hand.

City fans ordered large quantities of inflatable bananas for the clash with Liverpool in an attempt to revive a tradition that shows solidarity during a difficult time for the club. It's not the first time supporters have turned to inflatables to throw their support behind their team.

Its origins stemmed back to August 1987 when City fan Frank Newton is said to have taken a five-foot inflatable banana to Maine Road. His team faced Plymouth Argyle and Newton borrowed the blow-up fruit from a friend to try and lift the mood during a torrid period.

Former City striker and cult hero Imre Varadi also had a role to play in the craze gaining popularity. The Kippax Stand turned his surname into an 'Imre Banana' chant and supporters lapped it up by bringing more bananas to matches.

On Boxing Day in 1988, the inflatable movement peaked in popularity when more than 10,000 fans visited Stoke City's Victoria Ground with blow-up bananas. City players welcomed this and responded by running onto the pitch with the yellow fruit inflatables before kick-off.

Since then, it's become somewhat of a phenomenon and influenced mascots for rival clubs such as Stoke's Pink Panthers and Grimsby Town's Harry the Haddock. Inflatables took over English football, including green dinosaurs and giant hammers.

We expected a hostile atmosphere and City fans were well-prepared to deal with the anger from the Kop. Many of them made clear they stood by their club's owners who have maintained their innocence throughout the case.

So much so, that supporters sang a new chant in pubs near to Anfield and one of them focused on chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak. In the song, the lyrics read:

> Khaldoon, City's in love with you. We'll follow you down to League Two. We're not arsed, until we've been charged.

Mubarak is front and centre of the biggest scandal in British sporting history but hasn't done much talking since the guilty verdicts were dropped. It's reported that he met with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham just days before the independent commission's findings were made official and there has since been talk of financial relations between the UK and the United Arab Emirates being at stake.

While Mr Mubarak wasn't in attendance for today's game, CEO Ferran Soriano attended Anfield along with other club officials. He's another high-ranking figure who has denied any wrongdoing and claims that the club have "irrefutable evidence" which has been used in their appeal.

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