Manchester City executives, supporters pay their respects at Manchesterplatz

Munich [Germany], April 19 : Ahead of their Champions League quarter-final second-leg clash with Bayern Munich, Manchester City took a delegation of club executives to meet a group of supporters in order to lay the scarves of both Manchester City and Manchester United at the Manchesterplatz memorial on Wednesday morning.

Manchesterplatz is a memorial stone etched with the names of the 23 people who perished in the Munich Air Disaster on February 6, 1958.

Eight United players were among the fatalities and former City goalkeeper Frank Swift, who was working as a journalist at that time was also involved in the disaster.

Chief Football Operations Officer Omar Berrada, Chief Communications Officer Simon Heggie and Managing Director (Operations) Danny Wilson attended the memorial along with a number of City supporters.

Manchester United erected the memorial on the location of the accident in 2004 as a way of thanking the people of Munich for their care and support and to also have a physical location for people to pay their respects.

On February 6, 1958, the Manchester United team had been travelling back from a European Cup tie against Red Star Belgrade. Their aircraft stopped in Germany to refuel. The first two attempts to take off from Munich airport were aborted. But on the third take-off attempt, the plane crashed.

The eight players who perished were Geoff Bent (aged 25), Roger Byrne (28), Eddie Colman (21), Duncan Edwards (21), Mark Jones (24), David Pegg (22), Tommy Taylor (26) and Liam Whelan (22).

Duncan Edwards, who was considered by many to be the finest player of his generation, died 15 days after the accident.

The three club officials who were killed during this accident were secretary Walter Crickmer, trainer Tom Curry and coach Bert Whalley.

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