Leeds United players sporting their special warm-up t-shirts before their game against Liverpool. (imago Images)
Speaking in a pre-match interview (h/t The Guardian) before Liverpool played on Monday night, Jurgen Klopp slammed Leeds United for laying out ‘earn it’ warm-up -t-shirts in the Reds’ locker room before kick-off.
On Sunday, Liverpool, along with 11 other clubs, shocked the world by confirming their intention of forming a breakaway league. The European Super League sees its 15 founding members qualifying yearly regardless of their league positions.
This competition, aimed at replacing the UEFA Champions League, takes away merit as a criterion for qualification. And it is obvious that the teams left behind would be incensed with it. (h/t The Guardian)
And Leeds’ shirts signified just that. The specially-made t-shirts had the Champions Logo on the front with the words ‘earn it’ written below, taking a direct shot at the Super League clubs.
The back of the shirt featured the sentence ‘football is for the fans’. Leeds also left similar t-shirts in front of each Liverpool player’s lockers, as they aimed to send out a strong message against the monopolization of footballing power and capital.
But Klopp was not impressed with it. He mentioned that his team very well know that you need to earn your spot in Europe and that they do not need any reminders about it.
“I heard that there are warm-up shirts. We will not wear them, we cannot. And if somebody thinks they have to remind us that you have to earn it to go to the Champions League then it’s a joke, a real joke, and it makes me angry. They have put them in our dressing room. If it was Leeds’ idea, thank you very much. Nobody needs to remind us. Maybe they should remind themselves.”
Leeds United had the last laugh on the day when an 87th-minute Diego Llorente goal meant that Sadio Mane’s opener was cancelled out.
The 1-1 draw leaves Liverpool in 6th place but if the ESL goes ahead, the top 4 race this season probably won’t matter.
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