No one intended to kill football fans at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest 27 years ago. In 1989 British football stadiums were inherently unsafe, many of us felt in danger at the regular crushing entering and leaving grounds.
Crowd management was considered a control issue, not a safety one. In England, fences penned spectators in to prevent pitch invasions.
Hillsborough had staged many FA Cup semi-finals, including one the previous year between the same two clubs, so no proper thought or planning went into the game. During the 80s measures to control the crowd increased, while Sheffield Wednesday, who played home games at the ground, seldom came near the stadium’s capacity. The mean the stadium was unprepared for anything out of the ordinary, and the police were completely unprepared.
Access gates were open to relieve pressure on turnstiles which were inadequate to deal with a crowd of that size – a common, but dangerous, occurrence at the time.
Control measures were such that what was once a terrace area open from one side to another had been sectioned off. Once you were in one pen the only route out was to leave the terrace via the long tunnel underneath the Leppings Lane stand that fans used to enter the terrace. The two pens at the wide end of the terrace were under-filled, while the central two were crushed.
No one entering a tunnel knew if there was crushing ahead and there was no way to segregate fans off into available pens. Anyone attempting to exit through the tunnel would have been met by a large crowd of people trying to go the opposite way.
The system was stupidly crazy by design. Any Health and Safety attention would have deemed the terrace unsafe the moment the tall fences went up to prevent overspill onto the pitch area. It was a fatal incident waiting to happen.
Once the incident was underway South Yorkshire Police failed the victims spectacularly. Officers were watching the fatal crush from yards away but were unwilling to raise the alarm. They ignored terrified pleas from fans. After evidence of fatalities first arose, they turned ambulances away, delaying treatment to casualties for a crucial period.
When the incident was over the police invoked a smear campaign against the victims. Lies were told. Newspapers bought into the conspiracy, among others. The bereaved were left on their own to defend the memory of their lost ones as inquiries bathed all in whitewash.
There will be an understandable demand for prosecutions now, but for those who died 27 years ago, and many of their loved ones, it’s all too late. I hope the survivors gain some small comfort from today’s inquest verdict of unlawful killing. The torture they went through listening to the official lies must have been unbearable.
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Enjoying Martin O’Neill, Sourness and Richard Dune on tv3. Better than the match.
Glendaly
For Ivan Golac read Alan Stubbs. 94 revisited hopefully. :))
I can barely look at the 96 news – awful fate to die like that
SIPSINI on 26TH APRIL 2016 10:07 PM
VP…
Me and Tony had read and digested James’s blog before it hit the out backs of Ruggy:))
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Sips you’re at it….TV detector van in the Mulk…..yir all lying low :O)
Anyone have an answer to the Falkirk/Hibs finishing 2nd?
Both on same 67 points with one game to play – Falkirk GD = +26 and Hibs = +23.
What happens if say: Falkirk beat Morton 1-0 and Hibs beat QoS 4-0?
Who gets 2nd place?
Italian Cooncil tele’s post match analysis spent as much time on the pre match Hey Jude and Zidane’s ripped trews as it did on the football..Zidane took the offer of a good Italian tailor well..Paolo Rossi has now moved on to bigging up Vardy.
TET
Unless the resolution 12 sheet hits the fan beforehand, the licence is a certainty .
Unless Hibs do the needful.
PRAECEPTA on 26TH APRIL 2016 10:14 PM
I think it would be a playoff at neutral venue.
James Forrest,
As Warbarton faced his players at Hampden last Sunday and said “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve “
Pracepta
What is the Hibs v Falkirk head to head results?
PRESTONPANS BHOYS
:) Indeed!
P
What is the head to head ?
HH
Gary Neville !!!!!
Oh Jaysus
Come back Ronny I always loved you !!!!
Oh dear what have I become
Glen
That’s what I think, but have read a few saying otherwise, wtf am I thinking, it’s scotland ffs
HH
Almore
Well said
HH
THETIMREAPER
That would be interesting – a play-off before the play-offs?
__________
DD
No idea – has that scenario been legislated for?
Wits, that must have hurt a little.
Precept, DD, if Falkirk and Hibs finish level the SPFL will award 2nd and 3rd place to Sevco, they need the prize money.
James Forrest
What’s your take on sevco getting a licence if they win the cup ?
HH
Praecepta, apologies, spellcheck.
An absolutely shocking story. People ought to go to jail over this.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/26/how-the-suns-truth-about-hillsborough-unravelled
I hope to God some do.
Doc
I want to behind the new manager ….but Gary Bleedin Neville
Praecepta
How it works in European competition, unsure domestically.
I want to get behind the new manager ….but Gary Bleedin Neville
A Celtic top among the tributes outside the court, on BBC news.
THE EXILED TIM:
They shouldn’t, but they will. UEFA can still refuse to sanction it, and with a “going concern” note in the accounts they ought to … but the SFA will bend over backwards. They’ll approve it provisionally and UEFA won’t want to overturn a national association.
Actually, the decision will be made before the cup final.
Amazed no-one in the media hasn’t asked the question yet.
(Or maybe amazed is the wrong word …)
I wrote about it last week.
http://thecelticblog.com/2016/04/blogs/sevco-are-ineligible-for-a-european-license-but-will-almost-certainly-get-one?
James, I doubt any will face prosecution never mind gaol time.
Shameful, but the Establishment has gone as far as it can go.
I hope to be wrong.
WHAT IS THE STARS on 26TH APRIL 2016 10:24 PM
I want to get behind the new manager ….but Gary Bleedin Neville
You want to get behind the new manager……!!??
I want to get behind the settee!!-:))
WITS…
No way will that happen, I’ll eat pep Warbuttons hat if it does.
Almore
Good shout.
Are you getting to Glaschu for the Dons match?
HH
Wits, we discussed Ronny a few times, I was, ehmm, incorrect, you were correct.
It wasn’t a job he could do, you called it from the start, and, I note, have taken no pleasure in that(well done), nut on this I agree.
A big name he is, and has a good knowledge of the game, but little management experience.
A no for me.
Pepe Warbiola has the utmost respect for Admiral Yamamoto & his tactical genius at Pearl Harbour playing a Tora Tora Tora formation with a Zero up front which was revolutionary for it’s time says Pepe & one he hopes to replicate to achieve his goal of receiving an Admiral’s hat @dailyrecordsport
WITS
If that happens, Sipsini and I will clear Sauchiehall Street by carrying out a naked protest. ;)
Head-to-Head – looked it up:
Hibs (a) won 1-0
Hibs (h) 1-1
Hibs (a) 1-1
Hibs (h) 2-2.
Looks like Hibs if it goes to H-to-H!
James
Cheers, what about all the other clubs that uefa knock back, sevco are in the same boat, no.
HH
Boaty McBoatface :)
Anyone else see Kelvin McKenzie stopped by a journalist on today’s news? He banged on about how “disgracefully” the families had been treated and that the Sun had only reported information that the police had passed to them. He couldn’t get away quick enough. Spare us your pseudo sympathy mate.
Hopefully Neville was buying the restaurant…..