“Heysel was never raised by rival fans in the late 1980s. After the advent of the Premier League, I think there was a certain feeling that the European ban had affected Everton’s finances. And when Everton were flirting with relegation it manifested itself a little bit more then because people were looking for reasons why they were in this situation."
That is a barefaced lie......other fans were having a go at them in the late 80s.
Yours truly being one of them.
Me an all. They started their 'official' denial (ie the club's heirarchy on behalf of the fans) the very next day IIRC. As soon as the ban was introduced, everyone was pointing the finger squarely at them.
The way I see it is that if I had been to two games involving my club where a total of 135 people had died - Heysel in the main because of lack of self restraint, Hillsborough due to several factors INCLUDING lack of self restraint - I'd seriously have to ask meself if I wanted anything to do with the surviving fellow supporters of my club anymore. I'd be a hypocrite if I raged about just my own fans who'd died (in part) because of my own fans, without having denied my club's fans were entirely blameless of the deaths of another club's.
I'd DEMAND justice for the victims of BOTH disasters equally as vehemently. In the Heysel case not only for justice, but to rid my club of it's hooligan element in an attempt to at least TRY to make amends. I'd be as keen to get justice just as much for their fans as my own at Hillsborough; and I'd damn well try as hard for their fans - even if it meant I had to accept & bear the shame that my own club's fans led to their fan's deaths - directly or indirectly.
And I'd certainly think long and hard about my own possible contribution. It'd weigh so heavily on my own mind as to whether I must bear any personal responsibility.
It seems that when you're a kopite you can keep a low profile when other club's fans are killed by police incompetence, stadium design, and (in the main) the lack of self-restraint on behalf of your own fans leads to deaths of 39 other club's fans.......Indeed, you can twist the truth.....even LIE about it, AND be given the opportunity to do so in the mainstream media......That's as well use their deaths to goad another club's supporters by using their deaths to mock an entirely innocent club who suffered as a consequence (I'll come to that in a bit)
It's unacceptable though, when only 4 years later, the very same factors are taken into account and someone else lies about it (In Hillsborough's case, the police & the s*n) when your own fans die. They cannot deny it was their OWN fans lack of self restraint & failure to adhere to police instructions; and NOT anybody else's, that was a contributing factor.
They obviously didn't learn anything from Heysel, and by perpetuating barefaced LIES about Heysel even today (in a regional newsrag) it seems there's a reluctance to. Someone else has to pay in the mindset of the everyday kopite. Just as long as it's not them.....Or at least them exclusively.
Fans of other clubs
have had to. As well as the European ban that applied to a certain few clubs, standing areas are no longer allowed in all premier league matches as a direct consequence. Choice has been stripped away without consent.
It's not a question of disrespect to the victims of Hillsborough & their families to want to stand at a game.....It's merely a choice. Like smoking, there's an element of risk. As a result, the stadiums now have a 'sanitised' atmosphere that has denied (especially younger fans) us the chance to sample the true, almost 'nuclear-charged' atmospheres that were abundant back then. For those old enough, it's not something easy to explain to a younger fan - even at 'new' wembley, I guess.
I laid my scarf at anfield the following monday after Hillsborough, alongside a lad who had escaped the carnage but who'd sustained crush injuries.
To then (years down the line) see a banner with 'steaua buchuresti '86' on it was a slap in the face to the respect I paid to the dead (Even though their fans had denied me the opportunity even as much to see how my team would've fared in Europe's prestige competition) as well as an insult to those victims at Heysel.
40k+ at that game and nobody thought of getting it removed & the standard bearers banned. Says it all really. All
'good-natured banter' I suppose?
All good natured - until you pull them on what the pitfalls of such crass behaviour does.....then it's back to the siege mentality & almost sickeningly partisan denial; and the obligatory persecution disorder.
I don't know how Juventus fans look at it; but as an Evertonian, this is my view of the cult. It's about time the kopites cottoned on that the main reason the Hillsborough victim's families seek justice is for their loved ones, overturn the coroner's decision, hold people accountable & prosecute those who ought to be prosecuted. It's not exclusively to absolve liverpool fans for their shortcomings.....And the kopites shouldn't try to exonerate themselves if/when these things happen - especially if fans are found to have contributed in this verdict.
Tancredi Palmeri @tancredipalmeri 
