Every Saturday, I am sent to a Premier League game by talkSPORT and this season I’ve visited Anfield four times. It is one of this country’s football temples so it is an honour to go there.
Each time I am there I take a few minutes to stand across the road from the Shankly Gates and amidst the football-loving fans and tourists taking pictures, I read through all the names on the Hillsborough memorial.
On Saturday I followed that routine again, and then watched Liverpool thrash Fulham to go second in the table.
Football isn’t decided by sentiment; it rightfully dictates that the team with the most points at the end of the season will be champions.
But if there is one set of fans who deserve to win the title this season, it’s Liverpool supporters. And this is why.
Liverpool last won the title a year after the Hillsborough tragedy. In all that time those fans have been lied to, lied about and generally treated appallingly. Hillsborough police changed their stories to try to pin the blame for the tragedy on Liverpool fans.
Parents of fans who lost their lives that day were told bluntly they couldn’t touch their loved ones because the bodies ‘belonged’ to the coroner. There is evidence that the majority of those who died could have been saved had the police reacted in the right way, instead of instantly thinking it was down to hooliganism.
Liverpool fans were blamed for an appalling tragedy that wasn’t their fault. They’ve had to endure the pain and lies of all that followed for years, for decades.
My memories of what I saw on TV that day are of Liverpool fans using advertising hoardings as makeshift stretchers to have stricken fans taken away for treatment. I also remember Liverpool fans in the upper tier trying to drag as many fans up from the packed pens below. Liverpool fans acted heroically on April 15, 1989.
It wasn’t until last year that the original inquests were quashed. Nothing can bring back those who lost their lives but for the first time since the tragedy, Liverpool fans know that the truth is out there now, and nobody can tell lies anymore. It is impossible to overstate how important that decision over the inquests was to Liverpool Football Club.
The 96 who died will never be forgotten.
The Liverpool fans have been through enough. It’s time they had something to shout about, something they can properly enjoy.
The pain was too raw for true title celebration in 1990. The Champions League win in 2005 was miraculous – but once the celebrations subsided, the quest for truth over Hillsborough continued.
It’s about time English football paid back its debt to Liverpool Football Club. The Reds put England on the European football map in the 1970s and 1980s. And then England treated the club and its fans like dirt.
May the best team win the Premier League this season, but if there is any justice and sentiment left in football, Liverpool will be champions come May.
Next time you’re at Anfield, take the time to read the names on the Hillsborough Memorial by the Shankly Gates. They should not be forgotten.
