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HILLSBOROUGH
36 years ago today I set out for a football match in Sheffield. There was a great atmosphere when I got there and both sets of fans were confident. The game kicked off on time at 3pm and my team, Nottingham Forest, started well with several attacks.
But something was obviously wrong because Liverpool fans behind the goal Forest were attacking were spilling onto the pitch. At the opposite end, where I was, we had no clue why. Then the game was stopped after just six minutes. We all stood there, watching, as people were being dragged from the stand whilst others tried to escape to the sides and others even by being pulled up to the level above. Some of those were alright but others clearly were not. Some had clearly been injured or even worse. Advertising boards were being used as makeshift stretchers to carry people, some of them now just bodies, down to the Forest end of the ground where they were set down. I personally, and many around me, became numb. How could you die from watching a football match? It was too much to take.
When they eventually let us out literally every fan walked back to the railway station in silence. No one knew exactly what had occurred. By the time I was on the platform waiting for a train there were rumours of the numbers that had died but no one was sure.
In haste, sometimes stupid and sometimes evil things were said. Thatcher's Tories and the Sheffield cops - whose entire job was public safety and which that day was incompetently done - tried to blame the Liverpool fans. Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper, then edited by the odious Kelvin MacKenzie, made up lies about them. The tragedy was, simply put, entirely created by the Sheffield police and their lax approach to fan safety. Their incompetence and aggressive attitude to football fans literally killed people.
It changed football forever too for thereafter football safety was changed and all-seater stadiums mandated. I myself, as my own response to the avoidable tragedy, became part of the safety staff at Forest for the next ten years. I felt that I had to play my part in helping to keep people safe.
I learned many things that day and because of the aftermath. That Tories and cops don't care and are cavalier with other people's lives being only one of the things.
But today is not about them. It is about remembering the 97 ordinary men, women and children who lost their lives simply supporting their team.
You'll never walk alone.
