A team of superheroes introduced by the government of Singapore to raise public awareness of coronavirus measures has had to be pulled after offending football supporters.
The characters, dubbed the ‘Virus Vanguard’, were supposed to inform people about the protocols put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.
They were, however, to spark controversy once it was revealed that one of the heroes, MAWA Man, was powered by a hatred of Liverpool Football Club.
MAWA stood for ‘Must Always Walk Alone’, a play on the words of the Reds’ famous anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
MAWA Man was charged with the task of enforcing social distancing rules and had a Liver bird on his chest with a line through it.
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His belt featured a pitchfork similar to that which appears on the club crest of Liverpool’s arch-rivals Manchester United.
A petition was quickly set up on change.org against the characters and attracted over 500 signatures.
It read: “The Liverpool supporters in Singapore unanimously condemn the character MAWA Man and request for it to be withdrawn from this campaign.”
The Singapore government is now reviewing the campaign after taking the decision to withdraw it in its current form.
“We are sorry if we offended anyone,” a statement read on the government Facebook page.
“As this is the first time we are exploring this content format, we appreciate your patience.”
Other characters in the Virus Vanguard included “Fake News Buster”, a superhero who “wields the Mallet of Truth”, and “Dr Disinfector”, who was shrunk to the size of a micro-organism in a failed experiment and “unwittingly flushed” down the toilet by her colleagues.
It remains to be seen whether the superheroes return in a slightly tweaked form.
The football community is also waiting to discover whether it will be cleared to resume competitive action at some stage in the near future.
Plans are being pieced together to get the Chinese Super League underway, but divisions in Europe remain some way off that point.
That means that Liverpool, who are sat 25 points clear at the top of the Premier League table, are sweating on a climax to the 2019-20 campaign and confirmation of their first title triumph in 30 years.