Senior officials from both Liverpool and Manchester City held a meeting last month in an attempt to improve relations between the fans of the two teams.
The rivalry between England’s most successful teams of recent years has led to a string of unsavoury incidents in recent matches.
Tensions appeared to boil over in October’s Premier League meeting at Anfield, when Liverpool beat City by a single goal. City alleged that coins were thrown at Pep Guardiola, while Liverpool condemned the unacceptable chanting and graffiti in the away end mocking the Hillsborough disaster.
City then claimed their team bus was damaged on the way out of Anfield, and in 2018, City’s bus was attacked on the way into Anfield for a Champions League game.
Manchester City later said they would speak to fans over chanting, while also pointing out that they perceived comments by Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in the build-up to the match to be incendiary.
But Liverpool closed an investigation over the alleged coin-throwing at the start of December, with no supporters punished due to a lack of conclusive evidence.
With relations between the clubs appearing at an all-time low, a meeting was held in November to try and improve the situation between both officials and fans.
Representatives from both clubs’ fan networks — City Matters and Liverpool’s Supporters Board — also attended the meeting.
In a joint statement, City Matters and Liverpool Supporters Board said: “Over the past five or six seasons, our matches have been some of the most entertaining in the world. However, we can’t ignore the recent poor behaviour from a small number of fans on both sides, which has often overshadowed the results and the quality of football on show.
“That’s why we were pleased to sit down with both clubs to improve relations and make commitments to working together to improve fan behaviour at future matches.”
The clubs next play at the Etihad Stadium on December 22 in the EFL Cup.
It is understood that season ticket holders from both clubs will be contacted in advance of the fixture.
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