ECHO Comment: "Fears of Witch-hunt Against Liverpool FC"

[Titus Bramble]

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.

Slight contradiction there.

 

[neil999]

i think if t they finish in top four they should be awarded the premier league title on effort alone, seems fair

 

[davek]

Liverpool fans were blamed for Hillsborough when it wasn't their fault. If there is any justice left in football, they will finish as champions this season
By ADRIAN DURHAM

Wow. That's one of the most tasteless tributes I've ever read.

'Here's the title Liverpool...it'll make up for 96 people dying'.

 

[FTY]

 

[davek]

i think if t they finish in top four they should be awarded the premier league title on effort alone, seems fair

Spot on.

"You're 10 points behind Chelsea...close enough...here's the trophy".

It'd be heartless and an insult to the memory of 96 people not to.

 

[Blueblooded]

Seems to me that a lot of people wallowing in this grief porn have no connection with Hillsborough whatsoever (apart from being bandwagon-jumping bell-ends). They are quick to tell you what 'they've' been through and sign their totally unrelated scribblings with the fatuous YAWN JFT96 when it has no bearing on the subject at hand, yet they seem to have absolutely nothing to say about other football tragedies such as Bradford. Hypocrites of the highest order.

RS fans no more "deserve" to have anything celebrate than any other set of fans. England owes them nothing; if anything they owe the rest of us an apology for being such unrepentant blame-shifting self-satisfied arrogant tossers. :blink:

 

[roydo]

Always feel uncomfortable when this thread turns this way.......

 

[Del]

Always feel uncomfortable when this thread turns this way.......

Its a very touchy subject and one that is often avoided in case it upsets people

I have brought up something along those lines before though, Why do Liverpool as a club feel the need to have a mins silence and every ground in the country, Bradford and Utd do not do this they keep it in house and with there own fans, Look what happened at the Semi Final with Chelsea/Spurs when they had it there, I am sure that did not help the familys

 

[Minimeister]

Adrian Durham? They even put Darren Gough on the same show to make him sound more knowledgeable about football. Easy to come out no spouting his sentimental garbage, where was he years ago when the Justice campaign needed people in the media to support them.

Interesting debate though. I can't for the life of me imagine Chelsea or Arsenal fans saying 'if we don't win it I hope they do'. They seem to despise our neighbours even though they haven't been direct rivals for a few years now.

 

[steken1]

Liverpool fans were blamed for Hillsborough when it wasn't their fault. If there is any justice left in football, they will finish as champions this season
By ADRIAN DURHAM



Hopefully Juve win the league this year then and we qualify for the CL

What an absolute pile of shiit.

Painfully pathetic.

Talking about justice like that.

 

[Brennan]

If there's any justice Liverpool will surrender any future European competition places to Everton following Heysel.

 

[roydo]

Its a very touchy subject and one that is often avoided in case it upsets people

I have brought up something along those lines before though, Why do Liverpool as a club feel the need to have a mins silence and every ground in the country, Bradford and Utd do not do this they keep it in house and with there own fans, Look what happened at the Semi Final with Chelsea/Spurs when they had it there, I am sure that did not help the familys

Think you know the answer to that mate.

 

[bol-uk]

Seems to me that a lot of people wallowing in this grief porn have no connection with Hillsborough whatsoever (apart from being bandwagon-jumping bell-ends). They are quick to tell you what 'they've' been through and sign their totally unrelated scribblings with the fatuous YAWN JFT96 when it has no bearing on the subject at hand, yet they seem to have absolutely nothing to say about other football tragedies such as Bradford. Hypocrites of the highest order.

RS fans no more "deserve" to have anything celebrate than any other set of fans. England owes them nothing; if anything they owe the rest of us an apology for being such unrepentant blame-shifting self-satisfied arrogant tossers. :blink:

This times a zillion

When they sign their fb post YNWA i love putting YAWN?

 

[Raymondo077]

Think the FA should award them an honoury title just to make up for all the injustice they have undoubtingly suffered FFS!!!

 

[Blueblooded]

The Reds put England on the European football map in the 1970s and 1980s.

Yes, and they left their mark in bloodstains. I don't recall Adrian Dur-brain ever commenting on the injustice done to other fans by LFC and their noble long-suffering supporters over the years.

I don't wish to labour the point if it takes the thread in the wrong direction, but pretty much all of football is sick to the back teeth of the never-ending self-pity which makes them bring up their particular tragedy at every available opportunity and use it to justify utter tosh like this article.