‘Highly offensive’: Fans’ manhood banner slammed

Liverpool fans have been blasted by their own club after unfurling a banner depicting a star striker’s enormous manhood.

Liverpool has condemned a banner unfurled at a Champions League game showing a “racist stereotype” of one of its players.

The banner showed an obscene picture of Belgium striker Divock Origi’s head superimposed onto a naked body.

It made reference to Origi’s manhood by using an image that is regularly circulated on messaging platform WhatApp.

“The banner is highly offensive and inappropriate,” a Liverpool spokesman said.

“We condemn its use at the game tonight and sought to have it removed as soon as we became aware.

“We will look into identifying those responsible for bringing it into the stadium and act accordingly.

“To be clear, the image used perpetuated a racist stereotype. This is completely unacceptable.

“We acted swiftly to have the banner removed and we are now working with the local authorities and stadium team in Genk to identify those responsible.

“Any subsequent action will be taken in keeping with our sanctions process.”

Liverpool condemned the banner that was unfurled ahead of the clash with Genk.

UEFA is likely to hit the Merseyside club with a misconduct charge after supporters displayed the image ahead of Thursday’s Champions League match against Genk in Belgium, which Liverpool won 4-1.

The banner was taken down 35 minutes before kick-off at the Luminus Arena.

Origi came through the youth ranks at Genk before joining Lille in 2010 and Liverpool four years later.

The incident comes just weeks after Aston Villa hit out at their own supporters for a racist chant about midfielder Marvelous Nakamba.

The song was heard during the 5-1 win over Norwich, with footage shared online.

Villa supporters also criticised the chant on social media as the fan base tries to stamp out the behaviour.

And in 2017, Kick It Out asked Manchester United to ban their fans singing a similar song relating to striker Romelu Lukaku.

This article was originally published by The Sun and reproduced with permission