Special about Hillsborough on 5live tonight.
lolz
Christ do these Liverpool muppets ever get sick of banging on about Hillsborough
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Ah here ffs
As usual I find myself agreeing with you kid.
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They love playing the victim
ffs
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Thereâs mawkish and thereâs Liverpool. Iâm guessing John Moores University will be awarding them honourary doctorates posthumously next.
they just canât stop dragging it up at every opportunity
The Heysel victims should be given the freedom of Liverpool.
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A wonderful gesture from West Bromwich Albion to remember the 96 by replacing the normal blue seats with 96 red ones and leaving them empty for tomorrowâs home game against Liverpool.
Hillsborough was really rocking last night as Sheffield Wednesday went a long way towards securing their first appearance at Wembley in 23 years and a possible return to the EPL after a 15 year absence.
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They are not so quick to drag up the night they murdered 39 Italian supporters
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Scousers and Hillsborough - what you wonât read in the fawning papers
From RI 218, April 2009:
Scouse Hypocrisy
The upcoming twentieth anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster will rightly attract much media coverage and be the subject of commemorations, marking those who passed away but, as with all such scouse-led grief-fests itâs inevitable things will descend into a mawkish pit of self-pity. Already, of course, Liverpool have asked to be excused footballing duties on April 15th â a quite astounding move for a football club to take, by any measure. After all, wouldnât you think a high profile football match would be a touching and emotional way to honour football fans? (Clearly Liverpool simply didnât want anything to distract them from their grieving. We await LFC giving up their on-pitch commitments altogether in order to focus on remembering dead chickens, Jade Goody and the like.)
In return there will come the usual âgrief monkeyâ jibes from Reds, although given our own clubâs actions in recent years in relation to the death of George Best and the fiftieth anniversary of Munich perhaps we shouldnât be so smug. (That bizarre thing with the posters at the West Brom game was more akin to the passing of the Ayatollah than a football player, whilst some proposals suggested by the ludicrous Stretford End Flags group to mark Munich were toe-curlingly bad; not to mention AIGâs abomination on the front of OT, David fucking Gillâs name being recorded for posterity in the âMunich tunnelâ and the awful, nauseating accommodation of the Munich-baiters-in-chief for the derby fixture. The classy displays the club put on for Sir Mattâs passing in â94 and even as recently as â98 for the fortieth anniversary of Munich seem so long ago.)
United are often accused by outsiders of profiting from Munich and, whilst itâs true the disaster brought the club sympathy and publicity from outsiders in equal measure, no-one could really put a convincing case that United themselves sought to capitalise on the tragedy (at least not until that horrendous AIG advert). Indeed, far from people dwelling on events, Eamon Dunphyâs âA Strange Kind Of Gloryâ testifies how the subject was actually the great taboo throughout the club in the early â60s.
In contrast thereâs plenty of evidence that Liverpool have consistently sought to capitalise on what Hillsborough brought them (just enough sympathy to wash away their Heysel disgrace for instance, allowing them their stunning attempt to present its own twentieth anniversary in 2005 as a joint Liverpool-Juventus commemoration â grief hijacking extraordinaire!), demanding the victims were honoured and remembered by everyone else, whilst Liverpoolâs own board, players and supporters were moving on apace.
Witness the behaviour of John Aldridge at the replayed semi-final at Old Trafford a mere three weeks after Hillsborough. His disgraceful taunting of Forestâs Brian Laws following the latterâs own goal was unbecoming in any circumstances and fully deserved Tony Adamsâ retribution - âThatâs for Brian Laws, you cuntâ â three weeks later when Arsenal stole the championship at Anfield.
Of course that came after the all-Merseyside cup final (just five weeks after Hillsborough) which, as though nothing had happened, was once again marked by images of numerous scousers scaling the stadium walls to gain entry and, with the fences removed, pitch invasions that theyâd been put up to prevent. Meanwhile, stewards on duty that day were called to a disturbance at one entrance ten minutes into the game where they were met by the sight of hordes of scousers attempting to storm their way in. Forget the earlier ridiculous calls for the season to be abandoned and Liverpool awarded the FA Cup in memoriam â some of the clubâs fans had in mind a far more fitting way to honour the disasterâs victims.
Meanwhile, in the wake of Lord Justice Taylorâs report into Hillsborough, rather than take the lead in the transition to an all-seater stadium Liverpoolâs board held on as late as possible, even seeing the outside possibility of a reprieve dangled when âsafe standingâ technology was trialled in early 1994. When that was rejected, and with almost all other clubs having already committed to reconstruction, Liverpoolâs procrastination allowed further wishful suggestions to take hold about maintaining the Kop as the only terrace in top-flight football as some sort of âtributeâ.
And yet, twenty years on from Hillsborough, despite the clubâs inaction regarding the demolition of the Kop in the wake of the disaster; despite the clubâs fans being happy in the inherent safety of terraces per se - as shown by their willingness to pack them until the last possible moment - some influential Hillsborough families still maintain a powerful influence over the future of English football through their total opposition to any sort of debate about the merits of safe standing. Until such a time as they relax their stance, it will remain all too easy for politicians and the media to ignore legitimate calls for a debate into the benefits of safe standing, thereby postponing the possibility of it reinvigorating top level English football crowds currently dominated by middle-aged, middle class professional males with plenty of spare cash to spend.
That the Hillsborough families should maintain their stance against terracing is perhaps understandable (especially given that it represents the only real âchangeâ from pre-1990 representing their relativesâ passing was not in vain) but totally irrational. The talk is constantly of not wanting to âgo backâ to the days of terracing, instantly associating âgoing backâ with the dark days of 1980s hooliganism, as though a modern-day, well designed âsafe standingâ terrace fitted with pressure sensors and without having fans hemmed into killer cages bears any resemblance to the pre-Taylor Report reality. This opposition also appears to contradict the familiesâ call for âjusticeâ given that if the police were to blame to a larger extent (which they were) and the fences to a lesser extent (which they were) terracingâs supposed culpability doesnât get much of a look in.
This issue of the opposition to terracing was evident again last week when BBC news covered the recording of a Hillsborough tribute song. Present in the studio was some smug, barely intelligible cunt who is apparently Liverpoolâs Lord Mayor, and who took great delight in telling the camera, âAlthough crowds are much more safe now than they were twenty years ago and footballâs moved on, there are calls by some quarters for standing to be reintroduced into football stadia so itâs just important that we do reinforce the messages that crowd safety is as important today as it was twenty years ago.â Naturally, his position as Labour Lord Mayor of a rival Liberal council which has previously passed a motion calling for an open debate on standing had no bearing on his comments, as obviously scousers wouldnât stand for such disgraceful political exploitation of the Hillsborough victims. Ahem.
As is mentioned elsewhere in this issue, in the immediate aftermath of Hillsborough there was a widely prevailing sense of unity amongst many football fans. Despite the years of Munich taunts and âLFC celebrate Munich 58â banners being a staple of their European travels, there were many United tributes laid at Anfield in the days following the disaster, and Red Issue was even happy to donate sale proceeds to the disaster fund. Such feelings soon evaporated however, as depicted in print the following August by RIâs infamous âHillsborough Cowâ cover, which drew the ire of the Evening News in particular.
Despite this lampooning, come the clubsâ first post-Hillsborough meeting United fans still retained a respect for the actual victims, if not the perceived circus that had latched on to events. At Anfield that December afternoon the simple and stunningly effective âWhereâs your famous Munich song?â was met with embarrassed silence from assembled scousers whoâd deliriously lauded âWhoâs that dying on the runwayâŚâ for the best part of twenty years. Following it up with a deafening âYouâre just a bunch of wankers!â Reds had made their point in the cutest of ways, which makes it all the more disappointing to hear the increasing recourse to Hillsborough taunts in recent years (however toxic the rivalry between the clubsâ support, no normal person could fail to be moved by the scandalously young ages of so many of the victims).
These are now at the level where you have to wonder if United fans wouldâve respected a silence had the two clubs been drawn together this month in Europe â something even City managed at Old Trafford last year. Thatâs a depressing thought but then, despite how some seek to portray us as being a cut above, Reds have never been angels, and of course, some people might suggest you can track a straight line from United fansâ misbehaviour in the â70s, which resulted in the Stretford End seeing the first fans fenced in on the terraces, to events a decade and a half later in Sheffield.
A little unfair on Dochertyâs Red Army that may be, but given the scousersâ actions at Old Trafford last month, where inflatable aeroplanes were hurled around the concourses and in the stand whilst huge numbers of them celebrated the passing of âMatt Busby and his boysâ, no doubt the Mickeys will point to that as justification.
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That article is seven years old. Any new material for us?
Typical Man U bitterness taunting and glorying in the unlawful killing of 96 innocent LIverpool fans. You should be prosecuted under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act.
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Plop