Hillsborough Report Prompts FA to Issue ‘Full and Unreserved Apology’: The Daily EPL
The FA has been quick to respond after the chair of Hillsborough families support group Trevor Hicks criticized the Football Association yesterday for not issuing an apology regarding its role in the tragedy. The FA played the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough even though the stadium didn’t have a safety certificate, and despite the fact that the stadium had previous incidences where fans were almost crushed.
FA Chairman David Bernstein has today apologized.
There’s a ton of news to get through today in the build-up to gameweek 4 of the Premier League. Here are the major headlines (the international break is over, so the news cycle has picked up again):
- Hillsborough report prompts FA to issue ‘full and unreserved apology’ — The Telegraph
- Police chief Bettison rejects calls to quit after Hillsborough report — The Guardian
- Thursday’s Daily Mirror Headline reads “The Truth” — Empire Of The Kop
- Robin van Persie injury nothing to worry about, insists Netherlands coach — The Independent
- Six Premier League debutants to watch — The Guardian
- Michael Owen feels fit and ready to play for Stoke — The Independent
- This was the most important day in Liverpool’s history, says Alan Hansen — The Telegraph
- The Truth: Kop idols Dalglish, Fowler and Lawrenson on the Hillsborough report — The Mirror
- Boris Johnson apologises for 2004 Hillsborough article — The Guardian
- Hillsborough report: why the Mirror refused to accept police spin — The Mirror
- Wenger has dismissed suggestions that Bacary Sagna will leave the club soon — Sky Sports
- Wenger says he is in no hurry to open talks over a new contract — The Guardian
- Sheffield City Council apologise over Hillsborough safety failings — The Independent
- Reina agent insists Liverpool keeper is going nowhere despite Reds interest in Vorm — The Mail
- Hillsborough report: what data journalism can tell us about the files — The Guardian
- Thatcher government considered withdrawing England from Italia 90 World Cup — The Telegraph
- Sheffield still touched by Hillsborough tragedy — The Guardian
- Everton’s Jose Baxter: Whatever Happened To The New Rooney — Sabotage Times
- Why didn’t the Telegraph newspaper lead with Hillsborough story on front page? — The Guardian
- The Front Page Of Today’s Sun – ‘We Are Profoundly Sorry’ — Who Ate All The Pies
- Chelsea and QPR are in talks to diffuse the growing tension surrounding handshakes — The Guardian
- QPR’s Anton Ferdinand to refuse to shake hands with John Terry and Ashley Cole — The Telegraph
- Shane Duffy has signed a new 3-year deal which will keep him at Everton until 2015 — Sky Sports
- An open letter to Mr David Duckenfield; formerly of South Yorkshire Police — Hillsborough Documentary
- Univision Deportes grabs US rights to Ligue Un, Germany & France teams and more — SportsPro
- Swansea open contract talks with Neil Taylor, Ashley Williams and Michel Vorm — BBC Sport
Meanwhile, here’s a brand-new documentary about Hillsborough that was just released today. It’s unfinished, but it certainly shines more light on the subject with some excellent interviews:
5 Responses to Hillsborough Report Prompts FA to Issue ‘Full and Unreserved Apology’: The Daily EPL
Oh it was big of the FA to come out and apologize today. 23 years and they did not know they screwed up by putting a cup semi-final in a stadium without a safety certificate?
What took so long?????????
That was a bit weird, to say the least.
Hypocrisy knows no bounds.
if they are really sorry,they should stop rearranging games for stupid kick off times. lfc complained about hillsborough in 88. then again in 89. now all clubs fans are inconvenienced by the fa. semi finals at wembley 12.30pm. finals wembley 530 pm. no consideration at all for the travlling fans. not to mention giving finalists only a quarter of the tickets each. while the rest go to neutrals who are most likely to sell them. thus creating a black market!!
The problem back then was football supporters were all considered to be violent, beer swilling, working class thugs. Which was true of a small minority but everyone was tarred with the same brush. You were jammed into stands with poor or almost no facilities, many times in excess of capacity that had been built sometimes 60-70 years earlier. No consideration was ever given to providing decent safe accommodation for the average fan.
I can remember going to West Ham v Man Utd and the crush was so bad my mate was slammed into a stanchion causing a huge welt on his forehead and had to stay there looking at the back of the stanchion for the whole game as we simply couldn’t move. Even at the old Wembley in a 100,000 crowd England scored against Hungary and the crowd surged forward and we fell onto people who had been dumped against steel barriers. Going in and out of grounds was a real experience, you were simply carried along by the giant swell with no way to change direction. This was standard fare at the big games. And if you didn’t jump up with everyone else when a goal was scored you were swamped by everyone going berserk and landing all over you. For most of the game you deployed a considerable physical effort just to keep yourself upright. The FA was an old boys club and really didn’t care.
The all seater stadiums have destroyed most of a game’s atmosphere but that’s a small price to pay for safety.