Day or night, you won't miss a story with the Liverpool Echo newsletter Sign me up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Fans of Manchester United , Chelsea, Arsenal and around 70 other football clubs have agreed to call for a national boycott of The S*n newspaper.

A motion at today’s national Football Supporters Federation (FSF) summit which called on all fans groups to lobby their clubs and retailers in their areas to stop selling The S*n was unanimously passed.

All Premier League fan groups represented including Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal and others from the Championship and lower leagues will now go back to their local areas and pick up the campaign that was launched by the Total Eclipse of the S*n group in Liverpool.

The S*n is reviled on Merseyside for its coverage of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster in which 96 Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed and has been boycotted widely in the region.

Both Liverpool and Everton football clubs have this year banned The S*n from all club premises as well.

The motion was proposed at St George’s Park in Burton today by Spirit of Shankly member Roy Bentham and seconded by Dave Kelly of the Everton Supporters Trust.

The fact it was passed means the call to boycott the newspaper is now official Football Supporters Federation policy and means the FSF will now “call on all retailers and vendors of newspapers in their areas to stop selling The S*n.”

Speaking after the motion was passed, Mr Bentham said: “We are absolutely thrilled that the motion was passed and passed unanimously.

“Usually a motion will create some debate or amendments, but this just passed straight through without a single delegate voting against it.

“It means that all these fans groups up and down the country will now go and put pressure on their clubs to ban The S*n and to call on shopkeepers and vendors around the grounds to stop selling it.”

Mr Bentham said it was particularly poignant that the motion was passed just days after it was revealed that six people will face charges over the Hillsborough disaster.

Mr Kelly said: “From Everton’s point of view our club has supported Liverpool and its fans from day one.

“We have supported the magnificent Hillsborough Justice Campaign and have been proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

“This was not just an attack on Liverpool fans, it was an attack on our city and what The Total Eclipse campaign has done has spread that message out more widely - this motion should add to that now.”

The motion details some of the lies printed in the newspaper following the tragedy, including the claim that some fans picked the pockets of victims and that “drunken Liverpool fans viciously attacked workers as they tried to rescue victims and that police officers, firemen and ambulance crew were punched, kicked and urinated upon.”

It adds: “The FSF recognises and will not forget the hurt and distress caused to the people of Merseyside and to the wider football family by the lies and smears printed in the Sun, and, in particular, the distress caused to the families of the 96.

“Neither will the FSF forget the Sun’s refusal to apologise properly for the hurt it caused.”