This article is more than 1 year old

Amazon red cards 'offensive' Man Utd chant CD

Gunners cry foul over Wenger jibe

Offensive chants on a Manchester United CD aimed at Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger have prompted online e-tailer Amazon.co.uk to withdraw it from sale.

The London club complained that the lyrics of a song on the Manchester United Chants CD were defamatory, prompting Amazon.co.uk to pull its sale, the BBC reports. The Beeb omits to mention the chant in question but we're pretty sure it's the one that contains the verse: "With a pocket of sweets and a cheeky smile, Arsene Wenger is a..."

Why any one would include that in an unofficial anthology Man United fan chants is unclear, especially given the huge volume of less objectionable (and occasionally witty) material available.

Fan banter and sledging opposition players and managers have a long tradition in football. Not too infrequently this lurches into racism and casual homophobia, at which point those targeted have every right to complain. Former Arsenal defender Sol Campbell has been targeted by some especially vicious abuse along these lines over the years.

Amazon.co.uk told the BBC that it wouldn't remove products simply because they were in bad taste.

"Arsenal Football Club has provided us with formal notice that content within the album Manchester United Chants is defamatory in nature and we have, therefore, removed this title from our website," it said.

"We would not remove a product from our site because some, or many, people find it to be distasteful or otherwise objectionable. We believe it is censorship to make a product unavailable for those reasons."

Wenger completed a miserable afternoon in Manchester last Saturday when he was sent off for kicking a water bottle in frustration, after an injury time strike by his team was disallowed. Manchester United won the game 2-1, despite coming second best to the Gunners for much of the game. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like