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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp defended fans who booed the National Anthem at the FA Cup final, insisting 'they wouldn't do without a reason'.
The response from some Reds fans ahead of kick-off on Saturday sparked widespread outrage as jeers rang out around Wembley Stadium as Prince William, who is president of the Football Association, was introduced to Chelsea and Liverpool players.
Fans gesticulated and made obscene hand gestures while the Duke of Cambridge stood singing God Save the Queen.
Klopp, who addressed the media ahead of Liverpool's next Premier League match this week, called the club's supporters 'wonderful' and claimed they wouldn't boo 'without reason'.
He said on Monday: 'Of course I have thoughts. The question is why does it happen?
'They wouldn't do without a reason. The majority of our support are wonderful people.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has defended Reds fans who booed the National Anthem
'Really smart, go through lows and highs. They wouldn't do it without reason.'
The jeers started during a rendition of the Christian hymn Abide With Me by the 60-strong B Positive Choir, whose members have sickle cell disease or who have close friends or family suffering from it.
It erupted again as Prince William was introduced to the crowd and began shaking the hands of the players. The booing and jeers reached their peak during the National Anthem.
Former Crystal Palace chairman and now pundit Simon Jordan hit out at the treatment some Liverpool fans dished out, telling talkSPORT: 'You've got to be a special brand of moron to boo the national anthem.'
'There's not a necessity for it, I don't think it's a culture we should want to encourage in this country.'
Connor O'Neill, football writer for the Liverpool Echo, said Liverpool fans 'are well known' for booing God Save The Queen at Wembley and claimed that the reasons date from the city's antipathy towards Margaret Thatcher's Tory government in the 1980s.
He said: 'The Conservative Government's 'managed decline' of the city was then followed by the failings of the Government following the Hillsborough disaster, which further entrenched those feelings.'
There were also reports of supporters booing the National Anthem earlier this year, when Liverpool played Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final, also held at Wembley.
The outburst by thousands of fans at the weekend was denounced across the political spectrum.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said: 'I utterly condemn any fans who booed Prince William at Wembley today.
'The FA Cup final should be an
