Man City bananas 'brought fun back', says Varadi

What the report says

Former Manchester City striker Imre Varadi has welcomed the return of inflatable bananas among City supporters, saying the sight at Anfield on Sunday brought back fun and joy to the game. BBC Sport reported that dozens of the inflatables appeared during City’s 3-0 win over Liverpool, in a match that came shortly after the club was found guilty of 114 breaches of Premier League financial rules spanning 2009-10 to 2017-18.

Varadi, who played for City in the late 1980s and was nicknamed “Imre Banana” by fans, said the tradition dates back to the club’s spell in the old Second Division, when supporters first began taking bananas to matches. He said the craze then spread widely across football in the 1980s and early 1990s, and he was proud to see it still remembered decades later. The BBC noted that Varadi now sells inflatable bananas through the club.

The article places the fan display in the wider context of Manchester City’s history as a “yo-yo” club in the 1980s, when they were relegated and promoted several times. At Anfield, the bananas were used as a nostalgic nod to that era, while the current club situation remains uncertain as possible sanctions from the charges are still being discussed.