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Paul Wilson in the Observer:

Well done Manchester City for tackling the issue of the Munich chanting that has disfigured Manchester derbies for so long.

The infamous “Who’s that lying on the runway?” routine is an affront to common decency wherever it is heard, but in recent years it has been heard most often and most depressingly at matches in Manchester. City fans also refer disparagingly to United supporters as “Munichs”, aggrieved at the perception their rivals are still trading on sympathy from the air disaster almost 50 years after the event.

So a referee thought to be favouring United in a derby match might be subject to the singular chant: “Who’s the Munich in the black?”

Now City have appealed to their own fans ahead of Saturday’s derby to stop causing “embarrassment to our club”. Apart from pointing out what should be obvious, that 23 deaths do not make a suitable subject for goading your rivals, an open letter in the last home programme reminded City supporters that Munich also claimed one of City’s greatest former players in Frank Swift (pictured below), who had been covering United’s match in Belgrade as a journalist for the News of the World

Swift was the goalkeeper who was so overcome with emotion when City won the FA Cup in 1934 that he fainted after the final whistle, prompting King George V to send a telegram enquiring about his recovery. Now he is either not remembered at all by modern City supporters, or his untimely death is cruelly mocked.

This column can vouch from personal experience that some City fans define themselves more by their hatred of United than their affection for their own team and, given that a few Munich taunts were heard when Sir Alex Ferguson was spotted at the Tottenham game last Wednesday, there is no guarantee the club’s appeal will succeed.

But it deserves to. Whatever lame chants other teams come up with, Manchester ought to be the one place where Munich is left in peace.

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