Manchester United fan group, Stretford End Flags (SEF) commissioned the flag to float across the crowd at last Sunday’s (10 February) match against Everton at Old Trafford stadium.

SEF encouraged fans to submit designs for the flag, and received over 200 ideas. Manchester United ex-captain Gary Neville suggested that the design be centred on the well-known image of ex-Man U manager Matt Busby’s line up for the 1958 match against Red Star Belgrade.

Neville was sent seven shortlisted designs and chose one that had the image of the Busby Babes line-up, eight of whom died in the Munich Air Disaster, adorned with the words "We’ll never die".

The original image was black and white, but was re-tinted with the team’s iconic red and white team colours. Manchester United’s graphics team cleaned up the image and made it a higher resolution to be sent to Northampton-based XG Group for production.

XG Group printed 3m wide sections of 115gsm flame-retardent knitted polyester using water-based, dye-sublimation inks on a 3.2m-wide roll-to-roll machine.

These pieces were then sewn together on industrial machines. Altogether, the flag took five days to produce and deliver to Old Trafford.

The flag was funded through donations from fans, the SEF and Neville.

SEF founder Andrew Kilduff that it had been pushing for the flag to be produced over the past few years, but health and safety concerns had prevented Manchester United from allowing such a large banner to enter the stadium and cover the thousands of fans sitting in the Stretford End lower tier.

He added that it was important for the flag to be in place for the anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster, which claimed eight Manchester United player’s lives when the team’s return flight following their match against Red Star Belgrade crashed on 6 February 1958.