Klopp hits out at Liverpool fans for singing ‘rent boys’ chant

Jurgen Klopp

,

manager has told the fans not to sing the Chelsea rent boys chant, believing it to be a “waste of time”.

Some Premier League side’s fans targeted

Billy Gilmour

, who is playing for Chelsea on loan, with a homophobic chant during the Premier League opening battle last week.

The Reds manager told

Paul Amann

, founder of Liverpool LGBT+ fan group Kop Outs, that whoever sings this song in earnest is an “idiot”, whereas those who follow them blindly should look for another way of supporting their team.

Speaking in a video on the club's

Twitter

page, Klopp said:

 "I never understand that, why you would sing a song that is against something in a football stadium, I never got that and never liked it.

"I think it's easy to decide not to sing the song anymore. It's from no perspective the nicest song in the world, so it's not necessary. It obviously makes people uncomfortable from our own fan group.

"I can imagine now that people out there think, 'come on, it's only winding them up' and stuff like this. But that's the problem - most of the time we don't understand. I'm not sure if people listen to me but it would be nice. I don't want to hear it anymore for so many reasons.

"From a player or coach perspective, I can say these songs don't help us as well. It's a waste of time because we don't listen. If you think what you sing: you are an idiot. If you don't think about what you sang, it's just a waste of time, forget it and go for another song."

Amann explained why the chant that is mocking players of being a gay prostitute is offending LGBT+ fans:

"We know there are very few out gay professional players, actually only enough to make up perhaps a full team with a couple of people on the bench in the whole history of men's football.

"There is something not right there in terms of the environment, and I've got too many LGBT+ friends who have expressed discomfort at being at the match, or don't want to go because they are scared they might be left feeling uncomfortable.

"The rent boys chant which was sung at Norwich is so unnecessary, and what people don't realise is that it's chanted at the player, but actually the people who hear it are fellow fans like myself, who go from hearing You'll Never Walk Alone and being embraced in that fantastic fanhood and atmosphere to suddenly being left out in the cold."

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