My latest article in New Europe relives my memory of that fateful match at Hillsborough in 1989.
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In the
wake of the Hillsborough Independent Panel Findings, Nikki Sinclaire MEP
relives her memory of that match.
Hillsborough came at the end of a decade when I was
introduced to football; its passions, its delights and its tragedies.
I remember vividly a match I attended in 1984. I went with
friends to watch Everton vs Southampton in the FA Cup semi-final, where Adrian
Heath scored an injury time winner. A crowd soon amassed on the pitch to
celebrate the fact that Everton had reached their first final in 16 years. The
image that has always stuck with me is a woman who was celebrating on the
pitch, and the police officer who hit her across a head with a baton for doing
so.
This was an era where football fans were routinely penned
in, herded like cattle and treated with utter contempt.
Fast forward. As a Kop season ticket holder, I followed
Liverpool football club around the country. It is now 1989, Liverpool vs
Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium. Heysel was
still fresh in all football fans minds, where 39 fans died and 600 were injured
in the stadium disaster.
I was seated in the Main Stand as the Leppings Lane stand
had sold out. As the match kicked off, everything seemed normal. The first
sense that I got that something was wrong was when it appeared that police were
using the batons those who were attempting to climb over.
Whereas in today’s world we have twitter where we can follow
minute by minute updates of what is happening in stadia across the world. I
simply had to assume that something was very wrong, but information was not
forthcoming.
The match was stopped and we stood in the stands for around
an hour, until everyone was told to leave. People queued for payphones,
desperate to ring home and tell their parents and loved ones they were ok,
whilst trying to ascertain what had and was continuing to happen inside the
radio.
“63 dead” was what I remember hearing on the radio at first.
I was in a daze, as news started to filter in and you started to make sense of
the tragedy that had unfolded in that stand. I then did not know what to do.
I was living in Kent at the time, and made the decision to
go home. The actions of that day still hadn’t sunk in.
Upon waking up the next morning, my Dad began showing me the
Sunday paper which filled in some of the blanks in my mind. My mother told me I
was never going to a game again. The only word that can describe that day is
surreal.
I made my way back to Liverpool on the Tuesday, and Anfield
had become a carpet of floral tributes and scarves. Grief had cut deep in
Liverpool, and it was a City which was united in grief for those who were lost.
Then followed the media coverage. The Sun. The Lies.
Even though I wasn’t situated in the Leppings Lane stand
that day, I just knew that there was something wrong about the information that
was being reported.
Legal injustices followed. Lord Taylors interim report laid
sole blame with the police, but documents were hidden and have only just come
to light. The full report did not go far enough. The inquest was a travesty,
with an arbitrary cut off line of 3.15pm which prevented the truth emerging.
This was not an accidental death; this was an unlawful killing which should
have been followed by criminal charges.
For 23 years, Liverpool fans have called for justice for the
96. The biggest selling newspaper was and still is boycotted for printing lies
about what went on inside that ground.
Post Hillsborough, football is a very different game.
Stadium safety standards are stringently enforced. No Premier League club has
standing terraces, and certain levels of policing have to be met before matches
can go ahead. Football has attempted to give itself a rebrand as a family game.
We must take the findings of the Hillsborough Independent
panel to the highest level. It is frightening that the state can cover up such
an injustice.
I call for the full prosecution of anyone found to have
covered up vital evidence in this torrid tale, no matter how high these
prosecutions must go.
Forever in our hearts. Justice for the 96.
You’ll never walk alone.