September

[Sweder]

Good points BB. Heysel remains a dark stain on our (British Football's) history, and, yes, hooliganism was rife at the time. That's why the attempted cover up was so plausible, so readily accepted by those who weren't there. But the fact remains that what occurred was akin to manslaughter. Hillsborough was known to be a deathtrap, a tragedy in the wings. LFC CEO Peter Robinson asked, on the record, for the tie to be moved to Old Trafford (Manchester United had already offered their ground for the match). Hillsborough was taken off the approved venues list, by the FA, in 1981 following a similar incident when 500 Spurs fans were crushed. On that occasion gates were opened to release the pressure, and lives were saved.

The FA took a central role in all this. They dismissed Robinson's pleas, ignored their own findings from 1981 (and from 1986, when Liverpool fans reported crushing in the same end of the same ground). The police were being used as the government's enforcers in others areas - namely the miners' strikes - and saw themselves AS the law, not just there to enforce it. They fucked up, but there was the easiest, most believable of explanations. It was too easy. Bernard Ingham, Thatcher's press man, after visiting the scene the following day, was quoted as saying that he 'leaned on the spot ... there would have been no Hillsborough if a mob, who were clearly tanked up, had not tried to force their way into the ground.' The people responsible for that lie should lose their liberty.

The hardest thing to read now is that up to 41 people might have survived if attempts had been made to resuscitate them on the pitch. Their families now know which people might have been saved, and that must be like losing their loved ones all over again. They deserve to know who made the decision that their kith and kin should be left to die whilst a sick pack of lies was being prepared to cover the arses of those responsible.