FA offer Hillsborough apology
David Bernstein has apologised on behalf of the FA follwoing the findings of Wednesday's Hillsborough report
Football Association chairman David Bernstein has offered "a full and unreserved apology" to all those affected by the Hillsborough disaster.
The Hillsborough Independent Panel's report into the events at the FA Cup semi-final 23 years ago revealed a police cover-up had taken place which had intended to shift blame for the disaster, which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool fans, to the victims themselves.
The ground did not have a valid safety certificate at the time of the match. Sheffield Wednesday apologised on Wednesday and Bernstein followed suit on Thursday.
He said in a statement: "We are deeply sorry this tragedy occurred at a venue the FA selected.
"This fixture was played in the FA's own competition, and on behalf of the Football Association I offer a full and unreserved apology and express sincere condolences to all of the families of those who lost their lives and to everyone connected to the City of Liverpool and Liverpool Football Club."
He added: "This should never have happened. Nobody should lose their lives when setting out to attend a football match and it is a matter of extreme regret and sadness that it has taken so long for these findings to be published and the truth to be told.
"For 23 years the families have suffered unbearable pain and we have profound sympathy for them.
"I would like to commend the professional work of the Hillsborough Independent Panel while also recognising the tireless commitment shown by so many people in maintaining the fight for justice, particularly the family support groups.
"The FA has co-operated fully with the Independent Panel throughout this process and has released all documentation in line with their requests. I would also like to make clear that we will of course fully co-operate with any further inquiry.
"The FA and English football has changed immeasurably, and learnt many lessons in the last 23 years. Through advancements in safety and investment in facilities English football is now a much safer, more welcoming environment for supporters."
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The enquiry will no doubt throw up lots of questions some of which about the politiians of the era who like the former Home Secretary and PM Margaret Thatcher did not address the concerns and turned their backs on the people taking the word of the police n press etc as factual evidance despite the horrors of the day and the subsequent didmissal of the peoples call for a public enquiry.So is taken 23 years to uncover this cover up how many more stories were covered up since then.We had the Menzies killing and the Dr Kelly incident not to mention peoples doubts even now about Diane incident.We now know that the media can easilty be controlled by Murdoch n others n politicians can lie and fabricate thruth.Will no doubt throw up lots of new questions and concerns about press freedoms and the establishment control.Well done the people of Liverpool for sticking to their guns n at last seeing justice begining to take place.following this terrible manslaughter.
While I don't wish to try to upset any Liverpudlians any more than they already are (and deserve to be), I find the current bandwagon jumping to be a little disturbing. We are noe going to have a witch hunt of epic proportions where anyone who can be blamed for anything remotely to do with the disaster being hounded to their grave (literally). To read and listen to some of the hyperbole now being distributed, you could be lead to believe that some individuals actually wanted the deaths to occur.
It was a huge disaster and huge mistakes were made but that is all they were. There was no premeditation. Interestingly, one of the major contributions to the disaster was the use of crowd control fencing which was insisted upon by the FA and yet this is usually ignored as it's easier to target individuals rathet than organisations.
While not particularly wishing to denigrate any members of the recent panel investigating the evidence, I feel some people should try and understand the difference in meaning between independent and impartial
as i have said before, the FA appointed the game to held at Hillsborough
therefore the blame lies with them and if anyone should be prosecuted it them
if it had been played at Villa Park of Old Trafford it would never have happened.
i have sympathy with the families as i lost two cousins in Heysel
and the guilty party was never prosecuted then either
Do we still have a definitive answer to who killed the 96?
The police cover-up says it tried to shift blame onto the victims themselves but that was the biggest load of bull going.
Those people who perished, like many tragedies, were completely innocent victims who had done everything right whilst the people who caused the disaster walked away unharmed. But who is to blame? Scousers put the blame totally on the police but looking from the outside there were other factors.
There are plenty of LFC fans who were there on the day, is there anybody out there who was there WITHOUT a ticket, and there were hundreds of them, willing to come on here and put their side forward?
