Hillsborough - The Disaster, the Cover-up..

Nice job RA, as always.

However do you remember, an unrelated incident also involving Liverpool fans, the champions league match in 1985 against Juventus when 39 Italians died after being attacked brutally by Hooligans? I don't remember all the details but I do remember that involved Liverpool and that it happened right before the game and Italian fans begged Juventus players, Michel Platini being the main one, to forfeit the game but the game continued nonetheless. Shameful.

reply to post by RamsOnTop


Sorry, I really don't get what point it is you're trying to make there.

I know of that incident yes, but it doesn't take anything away from Hillsborough at all. Both were tragedies in their own right and both are completely unrelated. The fact that Liverpool fans were involved then does not in anyway justify Hillsborough occurring and I hope you wasn't hinting at such a thing.

The incident itself is also just one part of this thread as well - the main aspect was to highlight the conspiracy which took place, the massive cover up.

Thanks RA for the work you`ve put into this.

I`ve been a " Reds " fan all my life and started going to anfield in 1966 when i was a kid.
I never made that game as i was working away but i used to go with a group of about 15 every game.

One of them didn`t return that day and a few more from my town.
Like everyone, i`ve watched the heartache of the families and fans suffer the lies and was happy to see the cover-up exposed.

I just hope that those who covered this up are punished because i`m certain that there are a lot of guilty ones who carried on the cover-up, right up to recent prime ministers, politicians and the likes.

I`m sure we have the right people in place now....and they know who they`re after.

Once again.
Great thread as usual !

reply to post by lambros56


Hey Lambros and wow, so sorry to hear about your friend. That's truly awful and it does hit home a little bit more about how important all of this really is. And how especially justice needs to be done as soon as possible. No more than a day later than it should be.

Thank you for taking the time to post. I can't imagine It was easy to type out.

I would suggest that the cover up was also largely financial in nature as the police, and the club admins are very likely liable now for some many millions of pounds plus a hefty interest......
The class action starts when?

Terrible incident. Seems they should have heard of the Cincinnati disaster of 79 though. Link

Excellent work op.
We should never stop being angry or demanding redress.
Too many people fail to see the real crime here, the way it was covered up so that those responsible got away with it. Mind you, the police are always like that, always scum, always closing ranks when they are in the wrong, always relentless in the pursuit of others.

Anyway, here's hoping, eh? And I'm looking forward to getting my copy if He's not Heavy, He's my Brother on the 17th. All the cash goes to the campaign.

reply to post by HumveeSleeper


Hi HumveeSleeper, please forgive my brief response to your question, I can provide news articles etc in support of my answer but basically I believe the reason why there was such a 'cover up' of Hillsborough comes back to the political atmosphere at the time. Liverpool was and still is a working class city, many who were militant and very Unionistic in their beliefs and political opinion. This went against the grain with the then leader and Conservative PM Maggie Thatcher. Liverpool following the dockers strike and its Militant MPs and council were literally a thorn in her side. Similarly, a few years earlier, South Yorkshire Police (the force in question here) broke down a miners strike (now again under investigation that some of those miners were falsely charged and committed for crimes that did not happen). The South Yorkshire Police in essence dismantled that massive strike which could have escalated nation wide and so I believe it was a case of the Government at the time looking out for the force which had helped them some years earlier.
Football fans, rightly or wrongly were seen as nothing more than working class hooligans (the game was very different then than the Corporate Stadia and businesses that we see today) and the fans were treated with nothing more than contempt.
Again, please forgive me for my brief reply, I will source the documentation in relation to the strikes etc but didn't want to take away from an excellent and well documented and supported article
www.guardian.co.uk...

That is one post about the SYP and the miners strike.

Great work on this one OP.
I'm a United supporter for 24 years now, and these scenes were some of the first pictures i've seen from English Football. A former classmate of mine (his whole family)who lived here in Germany brought me to English Football
and I do remember that we discussed alot of these things happened on that terrible day.
Even they (and me) were Red Devils through and through, we felt the pain Liverpool felt these days.
His parents than told me about the Munich Air Disaster and although they were both very young in '58 they brought it to me in such a manner as your thread brought this topic back to my mind again.
I think these kind of disasters are the only thing that both supporter sides can't make any chants of................

Thanks for this great read.

Hopefully your side will get back to the top soon, i'd rather like to play against Pool as the biggest Derby and not our noisy neighbours.

With much respect for all the victims of '58 and '89.

reply to post by emmaw15


For a first post, that truly was great. Thank you Emma for the wonderful insight.

I, as I'm sure others would too, would just love to see more from you here as well. As I've said through out - It's nothing short of important for all this to be highlighted as much as possible and what you've provided is another often forgotten layer to the case. Thank you once again.

I appreciate you putting this thread together. I've never read about this incident and cover-up before. I've become a soccer fan in the last couple of years. I don't necessarily have "a team" but am just a fan of the sport (minus the faking/flopping, but it's there and we have to put up with it)

I wonder if this could be an investigation template that we might see regarding 9-11. It would take the families of the victims keeping constant pressure on for an independent investigation..... and apparently keeping said pressure on for a few decades. Truth is hard to find and sometimes it just takes many years to shed light on it. But that is my hope. Even if the independent investigation supports the OS (which I 100% doubt), an independent investigation is indeed warranted.

What we know after countless incidents is that politicians, chiefs and/or authorities of all ranks will almost always cover up their actions or inaction to avoid the truth being exposed, and loss of their job/money/spouse/integrity. The responsibility lies with the people to make sure truth is one day known.

Stay vigilant.

Thanks again OP!

reply to post by Rising Against


Dear RA,
I'm going to get flack for the statements i'm about to make, so let me start of by saying I fully support any kind of enquiry/justice for the 96 (and the rest). It was tragic, and I did watch it live on TV. I also have some very dear friends who are ardent Liverpool supporters who's lives were shattered by losing friends during the event.

I can't but help to think of the other millions who are butchered every single day who we DO NOT hear about. I realise this is ATS, and the topic itself is one of subterfuge by the authorities, so it has it's place here, but if this wasn't football related, hadn't been on live TV, was in some other part of the world and we weren't emotionally tied to the dead, we wouldn't even blink twice. In that respect the amount of media attention the deaths of 96 poor souls has gotten over the literal thousands who haven't disgusts me.

I hope you, and the others who stumble across my thread, truly understand what i'm saying here - if not let me state it again, I am heart broken for the 96, I just wish we spent as much time remembering and fighting for all the others too.

Cheers,
T

Thank you for posting this. I buy The Sun everyday because I like their crosswords. The rest is mostly garbage but I did read the new info about Hillsborough as it was released. I remember the horror as if it was yesterday. I applaud you for this epic thread and had hoped someone here would do a piece on the disaster. Never did I think it would be so extensively researched.

Many thanks.

reply to post by Wide-Eyes


To be completely honest I'm a bit surprised a thread like this explaining the situation and exposing the cover-up hasn't been posted before either. It certainly deserves to be discussed, especially in light of recent events concerning it.

Oh well, It's here now and I hope It has been read by many out there - Especially those who had no idea it existed in the first place. Fact is people didn't just die here. A real cover-up ensued, a real conspiracy and one that even lasted decades. A case such as this is one all of us on ATS are searching for..

reply to post by Rising Against


I remember when I read The Suns front page apology, earlier this year, I was seriously contemplating posting a thread about it but I just didn't know where to start. I scanned the new topics for a few days and saw nothing.

I too am surprised it was not covered here. As you say, this is a real conspiracy/cover up and it needs to be read by as many members as possible so that we can all be assured that our search for hidden truths are not all in vain.

Truly awful day, hearbreaking those scenes- remember watching them unfold on TV that Saturday afternoon. Any cover ups are shameful.

Used to be an avid Liverpool fan in the 1980s as a kid- managed to get tickets for the 1986 momentous FA Cup Final with neighbours Everton. Travelled with my dad along with a supporters club- as we tried to get into Wembley I feared for my life, the crush was incredible, fans were everywhere, those without tickets were actually climbing up the side of Wembley, never seen anything like it. The only thing which prevented serious injury or death was a copper let all the kids who were in the bit getting crushed where I was go under the safety barrier into the no man's land

I'm a lifelong Liverpool fan, just wanted to say thanks for making this thread. Us Liverpool fans have always known the truth, astounding that its taken 23 years for the 'real' truth to be known And even for us, some of the things that were covered up, altered statements and the conspiracy forged to blame the fans is beyond belief. I wasn't at Hillsborough I was at home sick, but I do know people who were there, people who lost loved ones, and I've done what I can along the years, to aid the fight for justice.

If you want to know what really happened that day you can't go far wrong than watching Jimmy Mcgoverns 'Hillsborough' an ITV 'dramatisation' that is as factually correct as you can get.

There is a lot of information and personal stories on this forum if anyone is interested www.redandwhitekop.com...

And also, if you are in the UK buy the Hillsborough Charity Single, help get it to Christmas number 1, all money raised goes to the families for legal fees for the new inquests etc - more info www.facebook.com...

JFT96 YNWA

Very good read RA, I remember the incident well (only 9 at the time). It was the single event that put me off football for life.

I was a keen Liverpool supporter, I still to this day, after 25 years since it was bought, have my Liverpool blanket, despite not following the game (my Grandad bought it for me, so it is sentimental).

For these facts to come out now appalls me, had the truth been told back then, I might have kept up my interest in football, although I may not have become as good at snooker!

Football at the time showed the world just how bad the British could be, and that day didn't help, and to an extent, it still shows how bad the British were, just on the side of those who were supposed to protect and be honest with us.

Thanks for the read.

I remember when I first learned about this tragic event. I must have been about 11 or 12 when it was in an issue of National Geographic. Those images have stuck with me forever.

I'm glad that the truth of what happened has come out. Great post!

reply to post by Rising Against


I did say "unrelated" myself in case you missed it. I just find it worthy of mention that in a span of 4 years 130 bodies were bagged and they were all involving liverpool fans. One was a bad judgement call on part of the people in charge and the other was just a brutal attack on part of the hooligans.

I'm not trying to prove a point I'm just pointing it out.