Mayor of Liverpool Joanne Anderson is inviting Liverpool FC to take part in a ‘victory parade’ the day after the Champions League final on May 29. Tony McDonough reports
Although it may be tempting fate, Liverpool City Council is preparing to stage a ‘victory parade’ for Liverpool FC after the Champions League final.
Jürgen Klopp and his team have already won the Carabou Cup this season. They are still competing with Manchester City for the Premier League title and will face Chelsea in the FA Cup Final on Saturday, May 14, before heading to Paris for a showdown with Real Madrid on Saturday, May 28.
Given the scale of the Reds’ victory parade in 2019 following their Champions League triumph against Spurs, the city council is anticipating the need for careful advanced logistical planning in the event of another victory parade this year.
Liverpool Mayor Joanne Anderson is now inviting Liverpool FC to take part in a parade on Sunday, May 29. Because many of the players will be travelling on international duty as the season ends this is the only day they will be available.
And, as the date of the proposed victory parade falls on the anniversary of the Heysel Stadium disaster, Liverpool City Council and Liverpool FC will pay tribute to the 39 supporters who lost their lives on that day throughout the morning.
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Mayor Anderson said: “We all remember those iconic images from 2019 as hundreds of thousands of people lined the parade route to celebrate this incredible footballing achievement.
“Staging an event of this scale does not happen overnight – our events team is among the best in the world at what they do, and they have done all they can behind the scenes and are now at the point where they need to start communicating with residents and businesses about the plans in place.”
The victory parade route would start at Allerton Maze and would travel north bound on Queens Drive towards the Fiveways roundabout and Rocket flyover. From there it would journey along Queens Drive, Mill Bank, West Derby Road, Islington, Leeds Street, The Strand and finishing at Blundell Street.
As in 2019, if the parade does go ahead, there will be key advice to supporters to line the entire route, plan travel in advance and expect the city to be extremely busy on the Sunday. More information and advice will be issued by the city council and partner agencies (LFC, Merseyside Police and Merseytravel) in the run up to the date.
Full costs of the parade will be met by Liverpool FC and it will be organised by the Culture Liverpool team.
Ms Anderson added: “The team working on it will have less than 24 hours’ notice once that final whistle blows so we need as much time as possible to prepare in advance to ensure the safety of everyone involved.”