OT: Results of the Hillsborough Soccer Tragedy Inquest Reached

Submitted by SBayBlue on

On April 15, 1989, the deadliest sporting event in British history occurred. A soccer match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest took place on the neutral site at Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield, England. 96 men, women, and children were trampled to death, and more than 766 were injured, several seriously, during the game.

At the time, British soccer was characterized by loud, drunk fans known for their hooliganism and attempts to start fights with rival teams' fans. To combat this, and prevent fans from mixing during the games, sections of the stadiums were divided by steel fences, and the areas became known as "pens", with only one way in and one way out.

Anticipation for the semi-final match was high, and fans traveled from afar to attend the event. As crowds gradually grew outside the old, decrepit stadium, police, who were understaffed and unprepared, became concerned for the safety of the fans. 

Police Superintendent David Duckenfield, assigned in charge for his first match, made the fateful decision to open up only one of 23 gates to the stadium, Gate C, an exit gate, in order to ease the crowding. Fans in the back of the line could only see signs in a dark tunnel ahead which were marked above with the sign "standing" to the stadium, not knowing that those in front of them were being trampled, until it was too late.

Besides the poor decisionmaking, most police literally took very little action after the crush happened, and can be seen standing idly on the pitch, preventing fans and eventually emergency services from attending to the injured. There were no emergency plans that were place. If they had taken immediate action, it was determined that nearly half of the eventual deceased could have been saved.

British officials deflected all responsibility to the victims, covering up the incident, and blaming the event on drunk hooliganism. Blood samples were drawn on all the dead, including the 10 year old. The spouses, significant others, and parents not only had to suffer the loss of their loved ones, but also deal with blame that the victims were responsible for their own demise.

Today, an official inquest reached a verdict, that the incident involved "unlawful killings", which opens to the door to manslaughter charges being filed against Duckenfield.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/26/football/hillsborough-disaster-liverpool-trevor-hicks-jenni-hicks/index.html

As a father of two young daughters, I can not imagine the horrific pain Trevor and Jenni Hicks, who also attended the game, must still feel, watching their two daughters being crushed and knowing they could do nothing about it.

I highly recommend watching the 30 for 30 Soccer Stories on Hillsborough co-produced by ESPN and the BBC.

On a side note, on this day, I was knee deep in finals my senior year at Michigan when the event happened, and have no recollection at all of the event.

Yo_Blue

April 26th, 2016 at 1:16 PM ^

At the time, British soccer was characterized by loud, drunk fans known for their hooliganism and attempts to start fights with rival teams' fans. 

...and how are things different now?

GoBlueBrooklyn

April 26th, 2016 at 9:20 PM ^

The Heysel disaster, which has nothing to do with Hillsborough in terms of its evolution as a tragedy, was also preventable on so many levels. People lost their lives when a retaining wall collapsed and crushed them-- that stadium, in a state of horrible decay, should never in a MILLION YEARS have been hosting a major European final. The ticketing policy of allowing neutral tickets to be sold to rival supporters next to each other was another massive mistake. Why were supporters throwing rocks? Because the terraces were falling apart and the concrete had broken into pieces. 

That said, Liverpool fans' behavior in attacking the Juve support is indefensible and the tragedy at the stadium saw convictions for the supporters who attacked rival fans. The 39 of Juve have been commemorated at Anfield during matches against Juve and those supporters deserve justice as well.  

Idiot fans who sing about Munich are deplorable. But that crash has nothing to do with official misconduct or football-- it was a terrible air tragedy. When i say "no one deserves to go to a football match and not come home", that means Heysel, that means Munich, that means Hillsborough. 

All of that said, the stupidity of so many comments on here is embarassing for a Michigan board. To claim that an entire fanbase is morally responsible for Heysel is outrageous, and to say "always the victims"-- a direct insult about Hillsborough-- is equally so. 

Nobody Likes a…

April 26th, 2016 at 9:31 PM ^

Let me be abundantly clear about this. Liverpool support have dragged Hillsborough around without ever accepting culpability for Heysel. The clubs own page about Heysel is utterly pathetic so I am not really up for being moralized or lectured to by your fan base. Liverpool are the Penn State of the premier league. There is always a reason, always an excuse, someone else is always to blame. Blame the police, blame Thatcher, blame the wall, blame united supporters for starting the chants, whatever it is that lets scousers carry that massive cross of self-righteousness before them everywhere they go. At the end of the day the two biggest losses of human life in European football both involve one team.

GoBlueBrooklyn

April 26th, 2016 at 9:48 PM ^

disgusting, comparing the club's supporters to defending pedophiles and blaming the support for Hillsborough... I think today's verdict shows that Thatcher and the police lied about Hillsborough, and they deserve blame. Sad to see you on here trolling on the day when the conspiracy of lies was finally exposed. Your clarity is well registered, your statements are lamentable in their myopia. 

Nobody Likes a…

April 26th, 2016 at 9:56 PM ^

Yep there it is. Oh the weight of your cross how do you scousers carry it alone. Also my Penn state reference was exactly the same sort of reference made on the shirt sold on this site, so again try to find another way to be persecuted. You don’t get to be cavalier about the deaths your support caused and expect others to care when you only care about the lives of your own supporters. 

GaryMoellerBre…

April 26th, 2016 at 9:53 PM ^

Calm down.
Go to a match in that city and witness the the decay, deplorability and conduct and please come back and talk to me.
I don't like cops at football. I don't like cover ups. I do look back see how other supporters have handled adversity at their club and it's in direct contrast of LFC.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

SBayBlue

April 27th, 2016 at 12:19 AM ^

In other tragedies where the victims are blamed. You sir, take the cake.

I suppose the 10 yr old little boy that was crushed to death, or the 14 yr old who died next to his father, also are to blame for drunken disorder, decay, and deplorability?

I don't even have a dog in this fight. I'm a Barca fan.

Nothing like blind loyalty to your team, to the point of being callous to the loss of 96 innocent human lives. Are you even for real, or is this just a bot?

stephenrjking

April 26th, 2016 at 3:57 PM ^

It's totally different, but on message boards it is easier to be ignorant, hateful, and snarky than to actually read. Or so I gather from your comment. [Edit: And my comment here--re-reading this, I may object to what you said, but there's no call for me to flame you in this way. My apologies]

You have no idea what has happened in the area of fan support and behavior in English Soccer in the last 30 years. None whatsoever.

MGoBender

April 26th, 2016 at 1:19 PM ^

The 30 for 30 on this was one of the most shocking and stunning docs I've ever seen, particularly because I came in completely blind and didn't know anything about it.

At some point watching it I said "oh my god, people are going to die."  Then at some point I said "holy fuck, how many people are going to die?"  I probably watched the entire thing with my jaw on the ground in disbelief.

I highly recommend it, but be prepared for some deeply disturbing images.

Bocheezu

April 26th, 2016 at 2:28 PM ^

whether it the was the 30 for 30 or some other one, but like you I'd never heard of the incident before watching and came in blind.  This was an absolutely horrifying incident in every way.

1.  Standing only sections with no assigned seats

2.  Enclosed pens where the fences along the pitch bent back at the top with sharp tips on them so people wouldn't climb over them

3.  A ton of people at the gate that don't have a ticket just hoping to get let in when they (inevitably) open an exit gate to relieve pressure at the turnstiles.

When they showed the crowd outside the turnstiles and the cops trying to maintain order (it was basically a riot out there), I could already see ahead of time how things could spiral out of control, and they certainly did.  Some of the pictures are just...wow.

stephenrjking

April 26th, 2016 at 3:28 PM ^

That was what English football was like back then. This was just all the awful coming together.

All stadiums had terrace sections, and people were just expected to pile in. It is horrifying to us now; it was what people expected every Saturday for decades there.

There are things we look back at now with horror at the danger involved. I look at race cars from the 60s and 70s and cringe at how vulnerable the drivers were (many died) compared to today. We look at fenced-in terraces and think it was a recipe for disaster.

But at the time it was normal. People may have worried about it a bit, but they accepted it as "part of the game."

I wonder if we'll look at big hits on crossing routes in football the same way in 10 or 20 years. 

74polSKA

April 26th, 2016 at 1:27 PM ^

Tragic that so many died and were injured. I was raised to hate soccer by my dad who called it really slow boring hockey. I wish I had more appreciation and understanding of the game. This is the extent of my knowledge of British soccer fans.

4godkingandwol…

April 26th, 2016 at 1:28 PM ^

That 30 for 30 rocked me. Best documentary I've seen. The scene when the fans started chanting justice, justice for the 96 when the government official was at anfield. Onions every time.

SCS100

April 26th, 2016 at 2:58 PM ^

Your post is worded confusingly. The first paragrah makes it sound like you're blaming Liverpool fans for Hillsborough. The fans weren't mixed in the terraces like you imply--Liverpool fans were in Leppings Lane, Forest were in the Kop. If anything, it sounds more like you're describing Heysel, where Juve and LFC fans were mixed due to UEFA's stupidity.

mgobaran

April 26th, 2016 at 3:08 PM ^

It was my understanding that Liverpool fans were supposed to sit on the opposite side of the stadium, but when they opened the exit up for entry, many fans rushed straight in and into the first opening they saw. Maybe it has been too long since I read up on it, or am mis-recalling. But didn't supporters of both teams die that day?

And sorry for the confusion. I think it's sad the blame was placed soley on the fans, and even sadder it was placed on only one group of fans. 

Yeah... "to blame" should have just been "blamed." Total brain fart.

SCS100

April 26th, 2016 at 3:16 PM ^

The new opening was at the Leppings Lane end--Duckenfield opened up an exit gate when the entrances became a dangerous bottleneck. As a result of not doing crowd control and failing to shut off the entrances to the pens when they were full, that exit gate led straight to the already overcrowded pens. The Hillsborough 30 for 30 does a fantastic job at explaining how Forest had several entrances available to them but Liverpool only had one (maybe two, can't quite remember). 

Since the entrances were segregated by teams, only LFC fans died during this, as they were the only ones entering the stadium from that area. What's even more infurating is that the police control box is in line with the end where the crush happened. Extreme incompetence all around.

GaryMoellerBre…

April 26th, 2016 at 2:20 PM ^

This has all been dragged out way to long. How about justice for the 39 Italian fans killed in the Heysel tragedy when Liverpool fans pushed a wall over on them..? If the 30 for 30 is your only point of reference you are truly in the dark. 66 Rangers supporters dead in the Ibrox disaster.. Look up the Bradford City disaster where supporters burned to death. These tragedies happened all across Europe. It's easier to blame Yorkshire police than to admit their fans were in a rabid state and ignored capacity. Don't think any traditional grounds with terraced supporter sections were ever considered "safe". Terraced grounds in Europe now have safety bars across the aisles to prevent crowd crush.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

stephenrjking

April 26th, 2016 at 3:37 PM ^

Congratulations, you've heard of other tragedies. 

You might not think it was enough, but 14 people were convicted of manslaughter after Heysel and sentenced to prison terms. And the entirety of English Football was ejected from Europe for half a decade. 

Doesn't bring back Heysel victims, but something WAS done.

It should be noted that among the memorial wreaths that were sent to Liverpool after Hillsborough, one of them came from Juventus. The team whose fans were killed at Heysel.

The last few sentences of your post are all the more nauseating. How are fans supposed to know what the capacity is and how full the stand is? How is someone at the back supposed to know that people are getting crushed in the front?

What is a 10-year-old supposed to do? You tell me. 

You're probably just trolling here. Not sure what's interesting about trolling a Hillsborough thread, but whatever.

BlueinLansing

April 26th, 2016 at 4:14 PM ^

only 1 of the 4 incidents he mentions involved fan violence, the others were horrible tragedies under circumstances that were highly variable and difficult to perceive happening.

 

What makes Hillsborough and Ibrox different is that both had nearly happened before yet little was done to improve fan safety.

GaryMoellerBre…

April 26th, 2016 at 6:15 PM ^

I believe you're referring to the Spurs Vs Wolves prior to the disaster at Hillsborough which led to injuries.
In the Ibrox disaster Rangers FC and the stadium owners took full blame and compensated the families of the dead.
There is no question that Hillsborough was not up to code even by that time periods standards.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

Needs

April 26th, 2016 at 3:48 PM ^

You're right that many grounds were fundamentally unsafe, but the South Yorkshire police made a huge number of negligent decisions that created the crush on the terraces. And there were some tragedies where the fans were to blame, like Heysel. This wasn't one of them. 

Read the inquest report that came out today. 

-Appointing a new police superintendent 10 days before the FA semifinal.

-The failure of that superintendent to familiarize himself with the management procedures for a facility that had three previous crush incidents during FA semifinals during the previous decade.

-A decision not to close the pens once capacity was reached, as had been previous practice.

-A failure to delay the start of the match once there was a crush situation near the turnstyles outside and a decision to open an exit gate, creating the situation inside.

-Preventing the vast majority of ambulences from reaching the pitch.

And then decades of ass covering and blame shifting.