It is sometimes said that sport is a wider reflection of society as a whole.
For all the criticism thrown football’s way over issues that plague the game such as financial inequality, institutional racism and cheating, you do not have to look too far to see that these problems are endemic in many aspects of public life as well.
Diving is often regarded as the scourge of the modern game although a cursory glance through history shows there have always been players happy to go to ground easily to win fouls, even if the lack of saturation media coverage we have now meant such gamesmanship wasn’t always as visible.
There have also always thankfully been those who seek to uphold the ideals of sportsmanship and it is a sign of the times that when such examples arise they stand out sharply due to the cynicism many now expect and almost take for granted, a prime example being Marcelo Bielsa instructing his Leeds United team in the heat of a crucial 2019 promotion clash to stand aside and let Aston Villa score a goal to offset one they had just been awarded in controversial circumstances.
Italian forward Paolo di Canio famously caught the ball when he could have scored into an empty net while Everton goalkeeper Paul Gerrard lay injured at Goodison Park back in December 2000 and this month sees the 25th anniversary of another Merseyside moment of sporting altruism - the day Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler tried to get a referee to change his mind over a penalty he had just awarded to the title-chasing Reds in a crucial clash away to Arsenal.
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It happened during the first of a number of failed title bids during the long 30-year wait for league championship number 19 at Anfield which was finally brought to a close by Jurgen Klopp in 2020 and won the Toxteth-born forward a commendation from FIFA for his sportsmanship, ironically coming just days before another big-hearted gesture from Fowler saw him censured by UEFA busybodies.
By the spring of 1997, the Liverpool number nine had already carved out a reputation for himself as one of the most exciting young forwards in the country and was adored by the Kop having been a rare shining light during the dark Anfield period which marked the early part of the decade.
Liverpool’s 1990 First Division title win - their tenth in the previous 15 years - may not have been the most impressive of the 18 the club had won up until that point but no-one at the time could possibly have envisaged that would be the last occasion the championship pennant would fly above Anfield for another three decades.
Kenny Dalglish’s shock resignation the following February and subsequent appointment of Graeme Souness plunged the club into a steep decline made more painful by the rise of Manchester United under Alex Ferguson as the Premier League era got underway, a dismal period at Anfield marked by humiliating cup exits to lower-league opposition, ill-discipline on and off the field, and increasing distance from the Reds’ fabled ‘perch’ atop English football.
One of the few silver linings of the dark clouds the Souness era brought to Anfield was the emergence of a talented crop of young problems who at least hinted at the prospect of a brighter future, Steve McManaman, Rob Jones, Mike Marsh, Don Hutchison, Jamie Redknapp and Dominic Matteo all breaking through during this period to periodically lift the gloom.
But it was the arrival of Robbie Fowler on the scene during Souness’s final months in charge who truly brought hope to disillusioned Kopites and captured their imagination, his fearless and cheeky persona being reflected in his unerring ability in front of goal which led seasoned observers to label him the most natural English goalscorer since Jimmy Greaves.
Making his first team debut just days after a hapless Merseyside derby defeat away to an Everton side who would only escape relegation that season by the skin of their teeth, the 18-year-old prodigy found the net in a League Cup second round first leg win away to Fulham at Craven Cottage and followed that up a fortnight later by scoring all five goals in Liverpool’s 5-0 second leg victory over the Cottagers - his first senior appearance at Anfield - to serve notice of his capabilities.
By the end of that campaign, despite missing two months through a broken leg, the boyhood Evertonian had scored the winner in front of the Kop on his Merseyside derby debut and racked up an impressive tally (in a Liverpool team which finished eighth in the Premier League) of 18 goals, only one behind his legendary mentor Ian Rush who had played 15 more games than Fowler had.
Any suggestions his explosive introduction might be a flash in the pan were quickly put to bed when, after scoring in the Reds’ opening day 6-1 away win at Crystal Palace, the 19-year-old marked Liverpool’s first home game of the season - and the first at Anfield since the demolition of the Spion Kop terrace - by notching one of the quickest hat-tricks in football history against the esteemed Arsenal back five of Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Keown and Winterburn in just 4 minutes 33 seconds which stood as Premier League record for nearly 20 years until being beaten by then-Southampton striker Sadio Mane.
It was the start of a three-year period when Fowler was arguably as lethal as any striker in Europe, recording tallies of 31 goals, 36 and 31 again in all competitions, as a revitalised Liverpool under the leadership of former Boot Room boy Roy Evans, began to threaten Manchester United’s dominance of those fledgling Premier League years while playing an entertaining style of football which electrified Anfield at times and won many plaudits but not enough trophies.
After winning the League Cup in 1995 to bring Fowler the first medal of the career, the following campaign saw the Reds briefly eyeing the chance of a league and FA Cup double following the epic 4-3 win over Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle in a match still regarded by many as the finest of the Premier League era but a shocking capitulation in the next match away to relegation-threatened Coventry City and defeat to Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley saw Alex Ferguson’s side - who Liverpool had taken four points from that season - capture the top prizes again.
Bolstered by the summer arrival of Czech Republic attacking midfielder Patrik Berger, who had impressed at the Euro 96 championships held in England, Evans’s side the following campaign put together Liverpool's most credible title challenge since finishing runners up to Arsenal in 1991, leading the Premier League at the turn of the year and maintaining their position on United’s coat-tails as Ferguson’s men inevitably edged back in front after recovering from a surprising autumn slump which had seen them beaten 5-0 at Newcastle and 6-3 at Southampton on successive October weekends to give their rivals hope cracks may be appearing in the Old Trafford empire.
Although the often pivotal month of March had begun for Liverpool with a disappointing late defeat at Aston Villa, a surprise United loss the following weekend away at struggling Sunderland coupled with another extraordinary stoppage time 4-3 Liverpool win over Newcastle secured this time by a brave Fowler header reduced the gap at the top to a single point with nine matches still left to play, which included Ferguson’s side travelling to Anfield in late April for a potential title showdown.
Arsenal lay third, two points behind Liverpool but having played a game more, and while the Gunners were in transition and still a work in progress with new French manager Arsene Wenger having only taken charge the previous October, could not entirely be discounted from the title picture given the Reds still had to travel to London to face them before the end of March.
A draw away to a Nottingham Forest side who would be relegated at the end of the campaign meant the Gunners had drawn level on points with Liverpool (who still had a game in hand) by the time Evans took his side to Highbury for the live televised Monday night fixture, with the gap to United at the top of the table back up to three but the Reds travelled to the capital in good heart having just reached the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners Cup.
After seeing off Finnish minnows Mypa 47 and Swiss side Sion in the opening rounds, the Reds managed to comfortably despatch Norwegians Brann Bergen in the quarter-finals in a tie which their star striker Fowler wrote his name all over.
He scored one of the most technically sublime of all the 183 goals he bagged during his two spells at Liverpool in the first leg in Norway which was drawn 1-1, producing a stunning first-time back-heel flick 30 yards out from Stig Inge Bjornebye’s cross-field header to cushion the ball into space before running on to it and volleying home before in the second leg at Anfield providing one of the moments which highlighted why he was loved by Liverpudlians for more than just his footballing abilities.
After giving the Reds a 26th minute lead from a penalty he won himself and seeing strike partner Stan Collymore double the advantage on the hour mark, Fowler sealed the Reds place in the last four by sweeping home Bjornebye’s cross at the Kop end 13 minutes from time and lifted up his shirt to reveal a t-shirt supporting Liverpool's sacked dockers.
With the two-year long dispute which began in 1995 between Mersey Docks and Harbour Company and 500 men sacked for refusing to cross a picket line continuing, Fowler and fellow Scouse team-mate Steve McManaman had both decided to show their support for the long-running campaign to support the dockers' families by wear t-shirts highlighting their plight designed in the style of the iconic Calvin Klein logo, and had agreed to display them after the match when the teams swapped shirts in the hope it would go under the radar of the football authorities.
But Fowler forgot the plan in the joy of hitting the back of the net and lifted his top to reveal the back page picture which would adorn many of the following morning's newspapers and ultimately would see him sanctioned by European football’s governing body for breaching their rules on political messaging during matches.
Four days later, he took his place in the Liverpool line-up with Stan Collymore restored alongside him up front after five games on the bench as Roy Evans went all out for the win which would cut the gap to to Manchester United, who had won at Everton two days earlier, back to three points.
Arsenal were also able to welcome back one of their top goalscorers with Ian Wright returning from suspension to partner Dennis Bergkamp and it was the home side who edged a cagey first 45 minutes with the Dutchman missing their best chance when slicing his shot over the bar following a low cross from Wright.
It was the visitors though who arguably had their clearest openings of the half when three times in the opening quarter of an hour Collymore was presented with a sight of goal but proved unable to add to his tally of 14 in all competitions so far, twice firing wide and then shooting tamely at England goalkeeper David Seaman.
And it was the former Nottingham Forest man who broke the deadlock five minutes after the interval when he was perfectly placed and left with the simplest of tasks eight yards out to convert when Seaman was unable to keep hold of Stig Inge Bjornebye’s low shot from the edge of the penalty area.
It was the perfect start to the second half for a Liverpool team looking for their eighth league away win of the season and a quarter of an hour later came the controversial moment which gave the Reds the chance to double their lead but only after Fowler’s unique moment of honesty and sportsmanship.
Running on to Mark Wright’s long ball into the inside-left channel, the Reds striker lost his footing in attempting to evade the onrushing Seaman and went to ground, only to get up to see referee Gerald Ashby pointing to the penalty spot.
With Seaman and Gunners skipper Tony Adams furiously disputing the decision, the TV cameras immediately focused on Fowler who, waving his hands, could be clearly seen mouthing "Ref, no pen ref, no" before appearing to apologise “Soz, Dave” to the Arsenal keeper.
Ashby would not reverse his decision though and it was Fowler, as Liverpool's regular penalty taker, who had to step up from 12 yards to try and double Liverpool's advantage.
He later admitted in his autobiography that, while he didn't and would never deliberately miss a penalty, he "didn't exactly put his bootlaces through it either" but the perfect outcome arrived for Robbie and his conscience with David Seaman saving his spot-kick but parrying the ball into the path of the onrushing Jason McAteer who slammed the rebound to home to extend Liverpool's lead.
Ian Wright pulled a goal back for the Gunners with twelve minutes left but Liverpool held on to move back within three points of Manchester United with games against Premier League strugglers Coventry City, Sunderland and Everton up next ahead of United's titanic-looking visit to Anfield in late April.
Inevitably though after the game much the talk was of the penalty incident and Fowler’s remarkable display of sportsmanship.
Referee Ashby claimed he had not heard the Liverpool man’s protests, a version of events doubted by a clearly still-livid David Seaman who said, "I know I never touched Robbie and Robbie knows. As soon as he got up he said 'you didn't touch me'.
“The referee is saying that he didn't hear Robbie say that, but I think everybody else could see that's what Robbie was saying. If Robbie chooses to lie, he's cheating himself, but he's not. He showed what a man he is. You just hope the referee is big enough to admit he made a mistake.
“I asked the referee to ask him, but he wouldn't. He shut himself off. Referees can change decisions. Why did he not book me or send me off?"
Arsene Wenger was a little more understanding towards Ashby while paying tribute to Fowler’s honesty at such a critical juncture in a crucial game.
"I think he knows it was wrong now, everybody does, but I can understand the referee taking the wrong decision. Unfortunately it killed the game.
“It was unbelievable to see a player in such a big game try to get a penalty for his own side ruled out. It was remarkable sportsmanship.”
Liverpool manager Roy Evans meanwhile felt afterwards, even having seen it back on television, that the referee had made the right decision.
"It looked a penalty from where we sat," said Evans.
"On the television replay it looks as if the ball goes past Seaman and Robbie has to jump over him. Even if there was no contact he was still an obstruction."
Comments years later from Jamie Carragher however, who was part of the Liverpool travelling party and sitting on the bench at Highbury that night having made his first team breakthrough earlier that season, do perhaps give some context to Evans’s post-match views.
“I remember Ronnie Moran going berserk and screaming ‘What’s he doing! Ian Wright wouldn’t have ****ing done it!’, Carragher said.
“He couldn’t believe what he saw. Particularly so after Robbie missed the penalty.”
Whatever the true feelings of the Liverpool bench were, they would have shared in the pride many associated with the club felt when shortly afterwards Fowler received a fax from FIFA general secretary Sepp Blatter congratulating him “for the act of sportsmanship you demonstrated in the game between Arsenal and Liverpool”.
24 hours later Fowler received a further letter from one of football's governing bodies - this time UEFA - fining him £1,000 for his t-shirt supporting the sacked dockers, which they said was a banned political slogan.
Fowler later said in his book, "Years on I'm still not sure if I was a Scally or a Saint" but the two incidents in such close proximity of each illustrate just why he was - and is still - loved by Liverpool supporters for more than just his God-given ability to put the ball in the back of the net.
Reflecting on that dramatic night at Highbury years later, Fowler said, “I’ve got a lot of good memories about playing against Arsenal. I made my Premier League debut against them when I was 18 and I seemed to score a few goals, including the four minute hat-trick.
“I just remember getting up and seeing David Seaman. There was all the talk of ‘did he dive or didn’t he’ but I just lost momentum when I jumped over him and fell over.
“It wasn’t a penalty and because he was my mate from the England side, I just said it wasn’t a pen. I don’t think there were too many happy Liverpool fans or too many happy Liverpool management on the bench but two good things came out of it for me that day.
“I helped Jason McAteer score his first ever Liverpool goal and I got a fair play certificate from UEFA so it was not a bad day – and we ended up with the win as well.
“I didn’t miss the penalty on purpose, it was just a bad penalty but they all are when you don’t score them. I remember it very, very well actually.”
