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• Fans should respect rivals’ histories, says Ferguson
• ‘Liverpool v Manchester United is biggest game of the season’

Sir Alex Ferguson has called on Manchester United and Liverpool supporters to put an end to the chanting that has marred previous fixtures as he prepares for a match he maintains is still bigger than the Manchester derby.

United face Manchester City next weekend but Ferguson believes the game at Anfield is still the most significant fixture in English football, and he appealed to the two sets of supporters to show respect by putting an end to the songs that are sporadically heard about the Munich and Hillsborough disasters.

“We are talking about the two most successful clubs in England historically, and a rivalry that goes back to how industry changed when they opened the Manchester Ship Canal,” the United manager said.

“That affected the history of both cities and it [the rivalry] has been there since I came to Manchester. Things may change in the next two or three years with Manchester City, but I have always considered Manchester United versus Liverpool to be the game of the season in English football and at the moment it remains that.

“Both clubs need each other and the history should be appreciated by both sets of fans. Sometimes, when I hear silly chants about Munich or Hillsborough, I don’t think it does either club any good because without each other it wouldn’t be the English league. If it came to a stage when fans were banned from each other’s ground it wouldn’t be the same game. The respect for both clubs’ histories should be adhered to. The intensity and rivalry, great footballers, it is the game of the season.”

Ferguson reiterated his point when he was asked to compare it to El Clásico in Spain. “Are you saying it’s not as good as Barcelona-Real Madrid?” he asked. “You know the difference? Barcelona is one end of the country, Madrid the other, and the fans don’t travel. The only rivalry you could compare the Liverpool game to is Rangers-Celtic.”

United, according to Ferguson, have not always dealt well with “the Anfield factor” and he admitted they had been “outfought” in this fixture for the past couple of seasons. “Their [Liverpool's] support has been fantastic, it’s got them going and they’ve fought for every ball, and although we’ve done well for parts of the game we’ve made crucial mistakes.

“In my time we have had nine players sent off [at Anfield], which is unusual for Manchester United. That is all down to the atmosphere that can be created at Anfield. Last season, when we were playing really well in the game, we made two really bad errors to give goals away. Two seasons ago, we had a player sent off. These are issues, along with temperament, that we have to deal with.”

The player in question was Nemanja Vidic, who is now available again after recovering from the calf injury he suffered on the opening weekend of the season. Ferguson, however, is mindful that Vidic played for Serbia on Tuesday and is weighing up whether to start him on the basis “the Liverpool game is such a tense, stamina-draining occasion that you want everyone to be 100%”.

Ferguson would not answer questions about Wayne Rooney’s frame of mind – “it was worth a try, but I’m not getting into that” – after his sending-off for England against Montenegro last Friday and the subsequent three-match ban to rule him out of the group stages of next summer’s European Championship.

He will warn his players, however, to stay calm despite the crowd’s hostilities. “The atmosphere is very difficult for everyone. It’s not an easy place but we can handle that.”

Ferguson has accused the referee, Andre Marriner, of not handling that atmosphere in the past, but he would not return to the subject. “I’m not getting into that. We’re not allowed to discuss referees. Martin Jol [the Fulham manager] has got five years in prison apparently for praising the referee.”

Sir Alex FergusonManchester UnitedLiverpoolDaniel Taylorguardian.co.uk

• Ban stays on Dallas action by former Liverpool owners
• Judge says pair ‘misled’ their own lawyer in Texas

The claims by Liverpool’s former owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, that they were “swindled” out of “millions of dollars” when the club was sold in October, will be heard in London, probably next year, following a decision in the high court. The judge, Mr Justice Floyd, maintained a ban on the pair pursuing a court action in Dallas, Texas, where they had argued the sale was “an epic swindle” and “conspiracy” against them.

In his 17-page judgment, Mr Justice Floyd severely criticised Hicks and Gillett for taking their case to Dallas on the same day, 13 October, that they were prevented in the high court in London from blocking the sale. Describing that attempt as “vexatious” and “unconscionable”, the judge said the pair had “misled” their own lawyer in Texas, who in turn misled the Dallas court, about the proceedings in London.

Mr Justice Floyd ruled in October that Liverpool’s former chairman Sir Martin Broughton and two fellow Liverpool directors, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre, did have the right to sell the club to John Henry’s New England Sports Ventures (now Fenway Sports Group), for the price of repaying the club’s £200m debts to Royal Bank of Scotland. In their claim in Dallas, Hicks and Gillett argued the sale was “an epic swindle at the hands of rogue corporate directors, Broughton, Ayre and Purslow [who] … conspired to sell the iconic Liverpool Football Club … at a price they know to be hundreds of millions of dollars below true market value”.

The high court here responded by awarding those Liverpool directors, RBS and Fenway an “anti-suit injunction”, preventing Hicks and Gillett from proceeding with their claim in Dallas, or anywhere outside England. The former owners sought this month to have that overturned, and to proceed in Dallas, but Mr Justice Floyd upheld it, ruling that any action must take place here, because Hicks and Gillett agreed to that when Broughton was appointed chairman in April 2010.

Detailing their attempt to bring the case in Dallas in October, the judge said Hicks and Gillett had not told their own lawyer in Texas that they had just lost in the English court. Their lawyer also told the Dallas judge that they could not seek their injunction, to block the sale, in London because “the courts were closed”.

That was untrue, said Mr Justice Floyd. He concluded there was “a strong case” that “the former owners decided to withhold information from [their] Texan counsel and from the Texan court, and indeed fed him with incorrect information”. Floyd said he found it “difficult to accept” that the pair were not being “vexatious”, by making that application in Dallas.

“I granted [the anti-suit] injunction on the basis of what appeared to me the unconscionable conduct of the former owners in seeking to undermine the English proceedings,” he said.

The anti-suit injunction was upheld, meaning Hicks’s and Gillett’s version of the Liverpool sale must be heard in London. Broughton and RBS have themselves asked the court to declare that they conducted the sale properly and honestly. RBS is seeking a declaration that it was not part of “an actionable conspiracy”; Broughton that he “is not liable to [Hicks and Gillett] for breach of any duty as a director”.

Representatives here and in the US of Hicks, who has taken the lead in the court proceedings, did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment, but Hicks and Gillett are expected to mount arguments in court similar to their blocked Dallas claim. Liverpool sources indicated the case is likely to be finally decided next year.

Liverpool said in a statement: “We are delighted that the anti-suit injunction prohibiting the former owners from commencing legal actions outside the EU has been upheld. Sir Martin, RBS and [Fenway] continue to maintain there is no basis to challenge the propriety or validity of any actions by them in the sale of the club.”

LiverpoolTom HicksBusinessDavid Connguardian.co.uk

• Authorities seize baseball bats and metal bars after arrests
• All five English fans injured now released from hospital

Italian police have admitted gangs of Napoli’s hardcore Ultra fans went out hunting Liverpool supporters to attack in the city last night.

There were a number of incidents ahead of the club’s Europa League match at the Stadio San Paolo tonight, which resulted in five English people – two of whom were stabbed – and one Italian being taken to hospital.

Their injuries were not deemed to be serious and all were discharged after receiving treatment but it has prompted police to step up security ahead of the game.

There were three arrests made after the attacks last night and police recovered an array of weapons and Ultra paraphernalia from the home of one.

Among the weapons seized were a baseball bat, several five-foot long aluminium bars with numerous strategically-placed screws protruding and a six-foot wooden plank.

“Ultras went out seeking English fans, absolutely,” said Filippo Bonfiglio, head of Digos, the local department which deals with terrorism and political activity.

“There are groups of violent supporters here in Naples so we could hypothesise something like this would happen but it was impossible to prevent every attack everywhere.”

Trouble started at around midnight when Ultras began throwing things at English fans in a pizzeria. The Italian owner went out to remonstrate and that was when he was injured.

Two Liverpool fans were injured after being attacked by a group of Napoli supporters before the most serious attack took place around 4am near the central Piazza Garibaldi.

A group of four fans were walking back to their hotel when they were followed and beaten up by a gang of 20-30 men.

Police said Gary Brown, 50, from Hertfordshire, and his son Adam, 17, received a knife injury and bruising respectively.

Brown’s 23-year-old son Daniel was not injured but family friend Ross Hazeldene, also 23, sustained a knife wound.

All three of the arrested men have criminal records and one has been convicted of football-related violence and is banned from Napoli’s Stadio San Paolo.

There will be around 1,200 police on duty for tonight’s match.

“We are organising more patrols to prevent these kind of attacks,” added Bonfiglio. “But the city is so great – 1.5m inhabitants – that it is impossible to prevent and control everything.”

LiverpoolNapoliEuropa LeagueFootball violenceguardian.co.uk