United devise campaign to stop fans insulting Liverpool

Manchester United are ready to launch a campaign to prevent their fans denigrating the memory of the 96 Liverpool fans who lost their lives at Hillsborough if the two sides draw each other in the Champions League quarter finals today.

Uefa have indicated that Liverpool's quarter-final will not take place on the anniversary of the tragedy – 15 April. But, after another afternoon of vitriol between the two sides' fans on Saturday, United will undertake work similar to Manchester City when the Manchester derby fell on the 50th anniversary of the Munich disaster last February.

That campaign was successful, with City manager Sven Goran Eriksson leading pleas for fans to adhere to a minute's silence. The only noise during the minute's silence appeared to come from outside the stadium.

But the raw hatred between Liverpool and United fans knows no bounds, the "murderers" banner in place for Saturday's game a reminder of United fans' willingness to raise the memory of those killed at Heysel.

For a while after the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy, Liverpool supporters stopped singing Munich songs. But, as Sir Alex Ferguson observed a week ago, the levels of enmity have increased and the chants returned about both disasters.