Donât forget clubs like Coventry and Wimbledon were denied the chance to play in Europe because Liverpool got everyone banned. Those clubs will never get that opportunity ever again.
Possibly Evertonâs greatest ever side were prevented from entering the European Cup also. Disgraceful when you think of it. Outrageous.
This is excellent by the great Brian Reade
The Hillsborough families are us
Liverpool is us
Liverpool means more and always will do because Liverpool is a people and a cause and the Hillsborough families are at the heart of that and always will be
I spent most of this week in a room with friends some of whom I met half a lifetime ago.
While we were waiting for a jury to give its verdict, these friends, nearly all pensioner age, passed the time drinking tea, trying to lift each othersâ spirits and playing bingo with dabbers.
We were strangers until I was 31 and went to a football game. That Âafternoon, after walking through a gate opened by a policeman who later lied about me helping to force it down, I did something unusual.
Instead of turning into a tunnel that took me behind the goal where I would usually stand, I walked past and up some stairs because the only ticket I could get was for a seat. Which possibly saved my life.
The ones with the dabbers werenât so lucky. Some of them spent that night in a makeshift mortuary Âidentifying loved ones who were having their blood tested for alcohol content because they were suspects in a Âcriminal investigation.
Some mums were told they couldnât touch their sons as they were the Âproperty of South Yorkshire Police.
You know these people as The ÂHillsborough Families, back in the news after David Duckenfield, the match commander who admitted after 27 years that he was responsible for the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final, was cleared of manslaughter, despite an inquest ruling they were unlawfully killed.
I know them as some of the most resilient, inspirational human beings Iâve ever had the privilege to meet.
Back in 1989 they were simply voiceless people who would spend the next three decades fighting for someone in authority to be accountable for their child, their partner, their sibling or their parent not coming home from that game.
Iâve seen them take so many kicks to the teeth from the British Establishment Iâm amazed they have any left.
At the initial absurd Sheffield inquest where it was decreed the deaths were accidental. At a Scrutiny of Evidence where the opening line from the judge was âwill some of the families turn up late like the Liverpool fans?â.
At Westminster, when a Labour Home Secretary told them, despite promising an inquiry, he could do nothing. In Leeds, when a jury failed to reach a verdict on Duckenfield during a private prosecution and these Âfamilies were led out of court by eight armed police as though they were criminals. And now this.
David Cameron once privately compared their quest for justice to âa blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat that isnât thereâ. But it was always there. And these brave people let the cat out of the bag.
Which is why Cameron was eventually compelled to apologise on behalf of successive governments for their appalling treatment.
For repeatedly telling them to let it go and move on while failing to Âunderstand the reason they couldnât. Because they were consumed by the most invincible of emotions: Love.
The most powerful weapon in the human arsenal. Because, when it truly drives us on we possess something as precious as life itself: Hope.
Which, on Thursday, after theyâd put down the dabbers and dabbed away their tears, I thanked them all for giving me for half my lifetime.
I wonât meet finer heroes.
Good point tbf.
Was it the same for tbe families of bloody Sunday?
Can someone who has a neutral standpoint please address my post as opposed to the Scouser Shill?
Another holocaust denier dismantled.
Be careful what you wish for.
Poor stadium construction?
A judge ffs.
Brian Clough would have at least 2 more European cups were it not for the wayward actions of Liverpool supporters
He would have two more expect Bob Paisley sent him home with his tae in a mug.
Oooft
Its the letter âHâ you tit.
Ah I thought it was too obvious.
Youâre getting confused there. It was usual suspects Juventus who bribed referee Gerhard Schulenburg when Cloughieâs Derby County were blackguarded out of it, in the 1973 European Cup semi final. Helmut Haller went into the referees dressing room at half time in Turin at half time to square it all off.
I knew about this despicable cunt from the word go. What a fucking wanker
who?
Heâs a boring cunt who contributed nothing of interest for months. This is the first spark of personality heâs shown and itâs not good.