A man has been charged after he was seen wearing a football shirt at Wembley which appeared to make an offensive reference to the Hillsborough disaster.
James White, 33, of Warwickshire, was charged on Sunday with displaying threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, Scotland Yard said.
The Metropolitan Police Events Twitter account retweeted a picture on Saturday of a man wearing a Manchester United shirt that had the number 97 on the back and the words “Not Enough”.
Wembley was hosting the FA Cup final, where Manchester City beat local rivals Manchester United 2-1.
#UPDATE | A man has been charged after being arrested during the FA Cup final at @wembleystadium.
He was arrested after being seen wearing a shirt which appeared to refer in offensive terms to those who died in the Hillsborough tragedy.
Read more 👇https://t.co/SMPNqNEU1w
— Metropolitan Police Events (@MetPoliceEvents) June 4, 2023
The Met said White was arrested “after being seen wearing a shirt which appeared to refer in offensive terms to those who died in the Hillsborough tragedy”.
He was bailed to appear at Willesden Magistrates’ Court on June 19.
Meanwhile, police said a further 22 people were arrested during the course of the policing operation for offences including assault, affray, possession of drugs, and drunk and disorderly behaviour.
Inquiries continue in respect of an item thrown on to the pitch shortly after the Manchester United goal, and there has been no arrest at this stage in relation to that matter.
On Sunday, the FA said in a statement: “The FA strongly condemns the actions of the individual who wore a shirt referencing the Hillsborough disaster ahead of the Emirates FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium.
— FA Spokesperson (@FAspokesperson) June 4, 2023
“We saw a photograph of the offensive shirt on social media and immediately started working to identify the perpetrator.
“Our security team were able to quickly locate the individual based on the image, and we welcome the swift action which was then taken by the police.
“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.”
Ninety-seven football fans died as a result of a crush at a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield on April 15, 1989.
An inquest jury ruled in 2016 that they were unlawfully killed amid a number of police errors.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article