Man City to lay wreath for Munich air crash
Reuters - Monday 26 September 2011, 14:23
MUNICH - Manchester City will
put sporting rivalry aside to mark the 1958 Munich air disaster,
which killed 23 people including eight Manchester United
players, with a wreath-laying ceremony on Tuesday.
The players, officials and journalists, among them former
City and England goalkeeper Frank Swift who was travelling with
the team as a reporter, died on February 6, 1958, when the plane
crashed on a cold and snowy day in Munich.
"It's refreshing, we appreciate that from Manchester City,"
Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson told a news conference on
Monday. "And of course one of their own players was killed in
the crash, their former players anyway."
United were travelling back after a game against Red Star
Belgrade in Yugoslavia.
A Manchester City delegation, expected to include lifetime
chairman Bernard Halford, will lay a wreath at the memorial on
Manchesterplatz ahead of City's Champions League Group A match
against Bayern Munich later in the day.
"I think it's a good sign that the game is not as bad as
sometimes we think, I think there's an element of supporters'
contribution in a different way which is not nice," Ferguson
said.
"We appreciate what Manchester City are doing if that's
the case, well done."