Tribute to former Liverpool forward Diogo Jota disrupted at Wembley

Liverpool fans hold a banner in the memory of Diogo Jota before the FA Community Shield final soccer match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace at Wembley Stadium in London

A tribute to former Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva was disrupted on Sunday (yesterday, Macau time) when some fans at the Community Shield match failed to observe a moment’s silence.

Before the game between Liverpool and Crystal Palace at Wembley Stadium both teams and their staff stood silently to commemorate the brothers, who died in a car accident in Spain in July. A minority of Palace fans broke the silence, eliciting a strong response at the other end of the field as well as from other Eagles supporters who tried to silence those not respecting the tribute.

Referee Chris Kavanagh then blew his whistle to signal the end of the tribute.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot later played down the incident.

“I don’t think this was planned, or that this was the idea of the fan that made some noise. Maybe he wasn’t aware of the fact that it was the minute of silence,” he said. “And I think then the fans of Palace were trying to calm that person or those persons down … They tried to calm him down, but that was a bit noisy as well. And then our fans reacted, ‘Hey, what’s happening here?’”

Palace won the match — beating Liverpool 3-2 on penalties after the game ended 2-2.

This was Liverpool’s first major game since the death of Jota, who was 28.

The brothers died when the Lamborghini they were in veered off a road and burst into flames near the northwestern city of Zamora.

The Premier League champion has made a number of tributes to Jota following his death, including retiring his No. 20 jersey.

Liverpool supporters began to applaud Jota when Sunday’s game reached the 20-minute mark and that applause quickly erupted into cheers as new signing Jeremie Frimpong scored to put the Merseyside club 2-1 ahead.

The Community Shield is seen at the traditional curtain-raiser for the top-flight season in England and is played between the defending league champion and the winner of the FA Cup.

In another development,  Crystal Palace lost its appeal at sport’s highest court yesterday against demotion to the third-tier Conference League for breaching UEFA rules on club ownership with American investor John Textor.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said its judges dismissed the English cup winner’s request to stay in the more lucrative second-tier Europa League in a case that also involved Premier League rival Nottingham Forest and French club Lyon.

Forest and Lyon are confirmed taking entries directly into the Europa League in September and Palace must start in the Conference League qualifying playoff round next week. Palace was drawn last week to play Fredrikstad of Norway or Midtjylland of Denmark on Aug. 21 and Aug. 28. MDT/AP