#deaths of 97 Liverpool fans

[semper-legens]

139. Hillsborough Voices, by Kevin Sampson

Owned: No, library Page count: The 15th of April 1989 would be a date etched into the minds of Liverpool supporters forever. Nearly one hundred spectators were crushed to death in the Hillsborough Stadium. Tragedy enough, but almost immediately, the police began to cover up their part in the disaster by pinning the blame on fans. The result was a struggle for truth and justice that spanned decades of hurt for those affected. My summary: My rating: 5/5 My commentary:

I...don't know how many people outside the UK are familiar with the Hillsborough disaster. Hell, I'm not sure how many people outside the north west know the details. I knew the shape of the story - the bullet points, as it were - but none of the specifics, so I wanted to learn more. I was born in Liverpool, and it remains the city dearest to my heart. People from Liverpool are often demonised as being benefit scroungers, thugs, criminals, scum, but this is just classist nonsense. Sure, it's not like Liverpool's perfect (particularly historically) but a lot of the problems with Liverpool as a city come down to decades of neglect by the government - 'managed decline', as they call it. And this, Hillsborough...this is one of the most potent and painful reminders of how the government sees Scousers and how they're willing to throw a huge amount of people under the bus to cover up their own mistakes and maintain the status quo.

(Warning below the cut for disasters, death (including the death of children), police mismanagement, police neglect, and generally the police being arseholes.)

Here's what happened, in short. (If you want to know more about the subject, please look into it, I'm just giving an overview.) Liverpool fans were given the worst, smallest, more dangerous end of a stadium that had not been safety-certified for a semi-final against Nottingham Forest. The turnstyles were not up to the amount of fans, and the police who were meant to be controlling and organising people going into the stadium made some terrible calls. A bottleneck formed, with supporters going down a central tunnel into a single central pen, rather than being guided to the side pens - which was made worse when an exit gate was opened to let people through without said tunnel being blocked off, meaning that people were funnelled into the already-overcrowded centre pen.

By this point, the crush was deadly. Fans were climbing the pens to try and get away from the crush, with some being lifted to safety by people in the stand above. The match was stopped, but the damage was already done, and in the crush 95 people died. The death toll would become 96 in 1993 when one person who had sustained traumatic injuries had life-support switched off, and rose to 97 in 2021 when another person with irreversible brain damage from the disaster passed away.

The disaster itself was horrific. There's no doubt about it, and I do not wish to de-legitimise the trauma of the actual event in my next statement. But the disaster might not have occurred, and people might have been able to heal from the trauma and move on and deal with their grief, were it not for the actions of the police. As I implied in the outline above, the police were one of the main causes of the disaster. They mismanaged the crowd. They didn't take steps to ensure safety. But what I haven't yet mentioned are their actions during and after the disaster.

Police formed a cordon across the pitch to stop Liverpool supporters from crossing the pitch, because they feared violence or a pitch invasion. Police wouldn't let people out of the pens despite them literally pleading for their lives, and in some cases pushed people back into the fatal crush. Police didn't let emergency workers and ambulances onto the pitch - or at least didn't alert them to the gravity of the situation, meaning that the response to the disaster was slowed. Many police just stood around watching while fans attempted to save lives and get as many people out as possible.

And afterwards? This book is a collection of testimonies from survivors, families of the victims, people connected to the disaster in one way or another. There are a few testimonies where they speak of having gone to the morgue to identify the remains of their loved ones, only to be pulled aside immediately afterwards and interrogated by the police, with no social worker or legal representation. The people who report this happening note that the police were focused on whether they or their loved ones had been drinking before reaching the stadium, mere hours after the disaster itself. And the reason why would be soon apparent. The police blamed the crush on supporters.

More than that, the police blamed everything on the Liverpool fans. They alleged that Liverpool supporters were beating up police attempting to give the kiss of life, urinating on the police, pickpocketing the dead, threatening to sexually assault the body of a dead teenager, that the disaster was caused by thousands of ticketless fans attempting to break into the stadium, that fans were drunk and disorderly and brawling and fighting and that was why the disaster occurred.

Needless to say, there's no photographic or video evidence of this actually having happened. Because it's bollocks. Because the police made it up to justify the fact that they fucked up so bad that ninety seven people died.

Most of these allegations were made in the newspaper The Sun. To this day, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone selling The Sun in Liverpool. Hell, the place where I work is outside of Liverpool, and I've still seen 'boycott The Sun' stickers around recently. To cause a disaster is one thing, to turn around and claim that it was actually the fault of the victims, when most of the people who were helping and trying to save lives and fighting so hard to protect as many as they could were the fans themselves, is absolutely odious.

But of course, the government took the police's side, and still nobody has been convicted of murder or manslaughter as a result of the Hillsborough disaster. How long did it take for a verdict of unlawful killing? Well, it was recent when this book was published. In 2016. Twenty seven years for an official proclamation that the victims were not to blame. Twenty seven years where the families did not get the justice they deserved. Just because it's easier to demonise Scousers as thugs, as drunks, as scum, than to admit that the police. Fucked. Up.

You'll notice I haven't spoken much about the actual book, but honestly, this whole rant is as much of an endorsement as I can give for this book. This book made me angry. I knew the cold facts of what the police had done, but I didn't feel it quite so much as reading the testimonies of the poor people involved. I knew that the cops were covering their own asses, but I didn't know they were questioning bereaved families about being drunk straight out of the mortuary and were blood-testing all of the victims for alcohol, including children. I knew that the aftermath of Hillsborough was awful, but I hadn't read exactly what happened in the voices of those who were there. This book is horribly, painfully relevant. I implore you to read it if you can.

Next up, two strange kids move into town.

[waglifeornolife]

if the guy getting arrested for using a Hillsborough slur on twitter after the West Brom fan passed away doesn’t give the tragedy chanters heads a wobble, i don’t know what will

People are actually so fucking vile omg

See this is why sociology and media studies should be mandatory subjects at school kmttt

not only was he mocking the death of the fan, he was mocking the deaths of the 97!

heavy on the media studies. i did that for a levels and i studied the scum and the impact on liverpool fans due to the media’s portrayal and the amount of things that i read about the abuse that our fans received because of it is actually sickening!!

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.15 (after 1940)

1941 – In the Belfast Blitz, two hundred bombers of the German Luftwaffe attack Belfast, killing around one thousand people. 1942 – The George Cross is awarded "to the island fortress of Malta" by King George VI. 1945 – Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated. 1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line. 1952 – First flight of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. 1955 – McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois. 1960 – At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ella Baker leads a conference that results in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the principal organizations of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. 1969 – The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down a United States Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board. 1970 – During the Cambodian Civil War, massacre of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong river into South Vietnam. 1986 – The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a discotheque bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen. 1989 – Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi-final, resulting in the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans. 1989 – Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in China. 1994 – Marrakesh Agreement relating to foundation of World Trade Organization is adopted. 2002 – Air China Flight 129 crashes on approach to Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, killing 129 people. 2013 – Two bombs explode near the finish line at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing three people and injuring 264 others. 2013 – A wave of bombings across Iraq kills at least 75 people. 2014 – In the worst massacre of the South Sudanese Civil War, at least 200 civilians are gunned down after seeking refuge in houses of worship as well as hospitals. 2019 – The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in France is seriously damaged by a large fire. 2021 – A mass shooting occurred at a Fedex Ground facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, killing nine and injuring seven.

[hollyrh]

BSPB302A1 ENTRY 2

Exploration of a negative situation of a sports venue

The disaster at Hillsborough Stadium on April 15 1989 was one of the biggest tragedies in sport, with the football game between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest resulting in the death of 96 spectators (Greissinger, 2012). With the match set to commence at 3:00pm, fans travelling from Liverpool to Sheffield experienced delays, creating an anxious experience for fans wanting to get through the gates. Police were forced to open an exit gate to relieve the pressure at the turnstiles, however this meant that people were left with no direction and all went the same direction down the tunnel that was in front of them. Fans were distributed heavily in areas that were destined for there to be issues. 

At the excitement of an almost goal from Peter Beardsley, fans were pressed up against wire fences that were being used to keep fans off the field, instead causing a crush that resulted in crush barriers coming down and people spilling onto the field as others were dying from crush injuries in the crowd. The game was stopped six minutes in. Investigations began with examining the crush barriers that had snapped, which concluded that corrosion had caused perforation that would have been visible to the naked eye (Nicholson & Roebuck, 1995). The crowd density was also assessed through calculations of the area and concluded that the average density of 8.4 persons/m2 would cause barriers to collapse. Further, investigations of the turnstiles were also necessary, showing that with the seven turnstiles serving the West Terrace of Hillsborough, it would have taken 2.25 hours to safely admit all spectators to the game.

Image shows the barriers that collapsed with ease.

The crush, according to survivor Eddie Spearitt, was described as being a vice that was just getting tighter and tighter (Scraton, 2004). His son, Adam, passed away in the disaster, stating that the anxiety and distress that was occurring in the stands was obvious, and there were ways in which Adam could have been saved had officers opened the gates to the grounds earlier. The mentioned stadium factors have been considered to play a significant role in the disaster, with each providing reason to think that safety was always going to be a concern at the stadium (DeAngeles et al., 1998). From all conclusions, changes to safety practices in stadiums occurred, as well as structural changes to stadiums as a way of ensuring that nothing as devastating as the Hillsborough Disaster could happen again.

References

DeAngeles, D. A., Schurr, M., Birnbaum, M., & Harms, B. (1998). Traumatic asphyxia following stadium crowd surge: stadium factors affecting outcome. WMJ : Official Publication of the State Medical Society of Wisconsin, 97(9), 42–45.

Greissinger, R. (2012, April 16). Liverpool FC: Hillsborough Disaster from an American’s Point of View. Bleacher Report. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1145826-hillsborough-disaster-from-an-americans-point-of-view

Nicholson, C. E., & Roebuck, B. (1995). The investigation of the Hillsborough disaster by the Health and Safety Executive. Safety Science, 18(4), 249–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/0925-7535(94)00034-z

Scraton, P. (2004). 4 Death on the Terraces: The Contexts and Injustices of the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster. Soccer & Society, 5(2), 183–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/1466097042000235209

[calciopics]

The Hillsborough 97

Ninety-six men, women and children lose their lives with hundreds more injured. The oldest victim was 67, the youngest, Jon-Paul Gilhooley, aged just 10, was the cousin of Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard. 

The name of the 97th Hillsborough disaster victim, who died last year, has been added to Anfield's memorial. Andrew Devine suffered life-changing injuries in the crush at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final in Sheffield, but survived until his death in July 2021.

Jon-Paul Gilhooley - 10 yo Philip Hammond - 14 yo Thomas Anthony Howard - 14 yo Paul Brian Murray - 14 yo Lee Nicol - 14 yo Adam Edward Spearritt - 14 yo Peter Andrew Harrison - 15 yo Victoria Jane Hicks - 15 yo Philip John Steele - 15 yo Kevin Tyrrell - 15 yo Kevin Daniel Williams - 15 yo Kester Roger Marcus Ball - 16 yo Nicholas Michael Hewitt - 16 yo Martin Kevin Traynor - 16 yo Simon Bell - 17 yo Carl Darren Hewitt - 17 yo Keith McGrath - 17 yo Stephen Francis O'Neill - 17 yo Steven Joseph Robinson - 17 yo Henry Charles Rogers - 17 yo Stuart Paul William Thompson - 17 yo Graham John Wright - 17 yo James Gary Aspinall - 18 yo Carl Brown - 18 yo Paul Clark - 18 yo Christopher Barry Devonside - 18 yo Gary Philip Jones - 18 yo Carl David Lewis - 18 yo John McBrien - 18 yo Jonathon Owens - 18 yo Colin Mark Ashcroft - 19 yo Paul William Carlile - 19 yo Gary Christopher Church - 19 yo James Philip Delaney - 19 yo Sarah Louise Hicks - 19 yo David William Mather - 19 yo Colin Wafer - 19 yo Ian David Whelan - 19 yo Stephen Paul Copoc - 20 yo Ian Thomas Glover - 20 yo Gordon Rodney Horn - 20 yo Paul David Brady - 21 yo Thomas Steven Fox - 21 yo Marian Hazel McCabe - 21 yo Joseph Daniel McCarthy - 21 yo Peter McDonnell - 21 yo Carl William Rimmer - 21 yo  Peter Francis Tootle - 21 yo David John Benson - 22 yo David William Birtle - 22 yo Tony Bland - 22 yo Gary Collins - 22 yo Tracey Elizabeth Cox - 23 yo William Roy Pemberton - 23 yo Colin Andrew Hugh William Sefton - 23 yo David Leonard Thomas - 23 yo Peter Andrew Burkett - 24 yo Derrick George Godwin - 24 yo Graham John Roberts - 24 yo David Steven Brown - 25 yo Richard Jones - 25 yo Barry Sidney Bennett - 26 yo Andrew Mark Brookes - 26 yo Paul Anthony Hewitson - 26 yo Paula Ann Smith - 26 yo Christopher James Traynor - 26 yo Barry Glover - 27 yo Gary Harrison - 27 yo Christine Anne Jones - 27 yo Nicholas Peter Joynes - 27 yo Francis Joseph McAllister - 27 yo Alan McGlone - 28 yo Joseph Clark - 29 yo Christopher Edwards - 29 yo James Robert Hennessy - 29 yo Alan Johnston - 29 yo Anthony Peter Kelly - 29 yo Martin Kenneth Wild - 29 yo Peter Reuben Thompson - 30 yo Stephen Francis Harrison - 31 yo Eric Hankin - 33 yo Vincent Michael Fitzsimmons - 34 yo Roy Harry Hamilton - 34 yo Patrick John Thompson - 35 yo Michael David Kelly - 38 yo Brian Christopher Mathews - 38 yo David George Rimmer - 38 yo Inger Shah - 38 yo David Hawley - 39 yo Thomas Howard - 39 yo Arthur Horrocks - 41 yo Eric George Hughes - 42 yo Henry Thomas Burke - 47 yo Raymond Thomas Chapman - 50 yo Andrew Stanley Devine -55 yo John Alfred Anderson - 62 yo Gerard Bernard Patrick Baron - 67 yo

[hassanfield]

with the anniversary of hillsborough coming up, i feel it’s important we talk about the true events that took place that day, causing 97 people to lose their lives. this disaster doesn’t just affect the victims families, but everyone who lives in liverpool. whilst it’s important we continue to fight for justice, we need need to acknowledge the role the media played in this disaster.

the FA Cup semi-final between liverpool and nottingham forest took place on saturday 15 April, 1989. after the stands collapsed, fans were crushed in an overcrowded stand, 97 of these supporters never made it home. hillsborough is remembered as one of the most tragic events in football history, but it is also remembered for other reasons. the scum published the memorable title "The Truth" four days after the tragedy, blaming liverpool fans for the deaths of their friends, family and fellow fans. in the stand. liverpool fans were accused of being drunk, robbing and urinating in dead fans, assaulting officers who were “giving the kiss of life”. this, in addition to a 27-year trial, was the beginning of many years of trauma for the victims' families, who worked tirelessly to obtain the justice they deserved. whilst the police and the court system played a significant role in blaming liverpool fans, and preventing the justice the families deserve. the media also played a significant role in stigmatising football fans, the media specifically targeted scousers and attached negative connotations to every citizen in the city, which still stand today.

the yorkshire police did everything they could to conceal the true events whcih lead to the deaths of the 97, and the subsequent court case only helped them in their efforts. as a result, the media began to not only believe what the police were telling them, but also to attack the 'easy target,' the victims' families. that was the beginning of nearly three decades of public humiliation of tens of thousands of people, when the police, the legal system, and the government were the ones to blame.

police at the game were pushing fans back into the pens when fans were being crushed to death, police laughed in their faces, called them all sorts of names. fans realised very quickly police would be if no help, and began helping eachother out of the pens, police threatens multiple fans with arrest when they were helping children out of the pens.

police incompetency played a massive role, 41 victims could have been saved if they had been able to access emergency services. there was also evidence that people were alive but had been assessed as dead by police officers, who did not bother to properly assess victims.

the police and media treated the victims with absolutely no respect, the lies began even as people were dying, the media circled around looking for pictures of beer cans, blood alcohol was taken from all the dead, including a ten year old boy.

in may of 2021, the legal system that had dragged bereaved families through 32 years of acrimonious warfare came to an end. as a result, no one has been held responsible for the deaths of 97 people, nor for the police campaign of lies intended to transfer guilt onto the victims.

so on april 15 we remember the victims who lost their lives and honour their legacies, we will never forget what happened at hillsborough and we will continue to fight for justice.

[vividaway]

People really going take the sun case as serious when they are proven to be corrupt e.g the Hillsborough incident

THANK YOU FOR SENDING TWO OF THESE!!

"Coverage of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster by the British tabloid The Sun led to the newspaper's decline in Liverpool and the broader Merseyside region, with organised boycotts against it.

The disaster occurred at a football match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. 97 Liverpool supporters were crushed to death, and several hundred others were injured, due to negligence by the South Yorkshire Police.

On 19 April 1989, four days after the incident, The Sun published a front-page story with the headline "The Truth" containing a number of falsehoods alleging that Liverpool supporters were responsible for the accident.

Though other newspapers reported stories critical of the fans, The Sun's repetition of unreliable claims as fact and position on the incident in the aftermath of the event led to outrage amongst Liverpudlians.

From 1993 to 2012, editor Kelvin MacKenzie, who was in charge of many of the publication decisions, gave conflicting comments on whether he was sorry for the front-page story and said that his mistake was in trusting a Conservative Member of Parliament—Irvine Patnick, who was quoted in the piece. 

The Sun issued apologies in 2004, after Wayne Rooney was criticised for giving exclusive interviews to the paper, in 2012, under the headline "The Real Truth", and in 2016, on a page 8–9 story in the aftermath of a second governmental inquest that concluded fans were unlawfully killed in the disaster."

[balillee]

if you don't know why you should still be wearing masks outside, because i've had my parents question me on this recently, here is an analogy for you:

pardon the sports. and also, i'm not entirely convinced that this is the most sensitive comparison to make but i'm not the best judge at whether or not i'm being insensitive about something, but i just wanted to say this because it's been nagging me and it's really fucking annoying.

so on april 15th, 1989 in sheffield in south yorkshire was an FA cup semi-final match between liverpool and nottingham forest at hillsborough football stadium.

shortly before kickoff in a poor attempt to ease overcrowding outside of the stadium surrounding the turnstiles, police match commander david duckenfield ordered gate C to be opened which lead to an influx of supporters in the pens, which only served to move the overcrowding from outside the stadium to inside the stadium.

with an estimate of 5000 liverpool fans trying to enter the stadium at once (liverpool had more supporters during the match, however nottingham supporters were allocated the larger space to avoid fans crossing at approach routes to prevent fighting and potential hooliganism which will come into play later), there began the crush. as fans were streaming into pens 3 and 4 through the tunnel, fans were pressed tightly together. the match was paused only five minutes in because the police, for apparently five minutes, were too god damn stupid to see that the people were far too crowded. when in the pens, people began to try to escape them by climbing and breaking fencing, and those who couldn't escape onto the pitch were in danger, many of them packed so tightly that they died of compressive asphyxia while standing. the ambulance service was overwhelmed, and fans were allowed to help the injured, some even attempting CPR, so that they wouldn't be preoccupied taking their anger out on the police - that i think is a double edged sword. the uninjured didn't need their permission to help the fans, and if they were supposedly denied the ability to help, then they would have been even more justified to attack the police. just saying.

either way, the initial crush ended with 94 deaths on the day and 766 injured, giving it the highest death toll in british sporting history. by 2022, the number of deaths related to the incident has now racked up to 97. one man died a few days after the disaster, another died of complications related to sustained injuries in 1993, and in 2021 a coroner ruled that andrew devine, who had suffered immense and irreversible brain damage due to the incident, was the 97th victim.

in the following days the south yorkshire police spun the lie that the disaster was caused by drunkenness and hooliganism so that the police would uphold their image. this narrative continued to be spun even into the nineties, past the taylor report which ruled that the main cause of the disaster was because of the failure of the SYP, however it did result eventually in health and safety changes being made to stadiums up and down the country to prevent something as disastrous from happening again.

in 1991 the coroner ruled all of the 95 deaths at the time accidental, which the families rejected and fought to have the case reopened however in 1997 it was ruled that there was no justification to reopen the inquiry. the inquiry was only reopened in 2012 by two criminal investigations by the police - operation resolve to look into the causes and the IPCC to examine the actions of the police in the aftermath. in better news, the coroner's inquests from 2014 to 2016 found that the supporters were all killed due to grossly negligent failures by police and ambulance services to fulfil duties of care, but also ruled in that the design of the stadium was also at fault and that the supporters were not to be blamed for the crush.

fun fact: did you know that you will never, ever find a copy of the sun newspaper in liverpool? their coverage of the disaster is why. their article, headlined 'the truth' (although they initially wanted to go for 'you scum') blamed the disaster on supporters and spun lies such as them pickpocketing victims, pissing on police and beating up constables giving CPR. the lie that was spun about them pissing on police may have actually stemmed from the fact that the dead bodies were having to expel literally everything in them because of them being consistently crushed. by 2017, the sun journalists were banned from entering liverpool FC and everton FC grounds because of their coverage.

so billy, what the fuck does this have to do with anything other than just being, like, the saddest ACAB anti-sun story ever told? <- my impression of you rn

covid doesn't kill everyone. if it did, i wouldn't be writing this shit and poor old bill would have died before she could graduate from college. it's very unlikely that it will kill a normal, healthy person.

there's the catch though, there is a chance that you, my dear reader, may not be a normal, healthy person. you may be immunocompromised, say perhaps you have asthma, cancer, cystic fibrosis, hiv or maybe you're just pregnant. your chance of dying from covid has suddenly become a lot higher, especially with the rises of other covid variants like delta and omicron.

not only that, if you don't die you're a lot more susceptible to other complications typically referred to as 'long covid'. this can range from milder but still intrusive symptoms such as, according to the nhs, fatigue, memory problems, heart palpitations, depression and anxiety, tinnitus and rashes all the way to shit like heart complications, kidney impairments, guillain-barre syndrome, strokes, and brain damage. not fucking fun.

and yet, in the UK, all restrictions for covid-19 have been lifted by the government to cover up the gross negligence and failure of the tory party. had boris johnson not lifted the restrictions his ass would still be on the line for partying while others at home could not attend mass funerals for their loved ones while media ran by conspiracy-mongering fucking gibbons misinformed half of the facebook population on the vaccine, the effectiveness of masks and even the legitimacy of the virus' existence. only recently did the london metropolitan police (aka the foreign secretary's fucking lapdogs) stop refusing to open up an investigation on the party and the prime minister. their reasoning as to why they wouldn't was because apparently they don't investigate things that happened over a year prior, which is a fucking lie, because the hillsborough disaster happened in 1989 and operation resolve began in 2012.

so imagine you're someone who has athsma, and for the last two years you've been told that covid 'isn't that bad because the only people that will die are usually dead because of comorbidities'. the last two years you've been hearing the rhetoric that it's all fine because you're more likely to die than 'normal' people. and then in an attempt to cover their own asses for their gross failure to protect the british public and the metaphorical way that they spat on the graves of the hundreds of thousands of people they let die due to their negligence, they lift restrictions and you don't have to wear your mask anymore.

well, isn't that just fucking great. you can literally have covid and just go about your day like it's just a little headache.

i'm not immunocompromised (or, if i am, i'm none the wiser) and i can't claim to know or understand the fear that has existed within the disabled community during this pandemic, but what i can do is respect your wishes and continue to wear my mask in public spaces. if i'm allowed outside, you are too because you are no different than i and it is truly unfair to throw your safety under the bus just so i can get rid of a little mask acne. at some point, your employers are expecting you back at work because we live in a dystopian hellscape and there's nothing that either of us can do about that. you still have to go about your day and i don't want to be the reason that you could have to take some sick leave that your boss would rather fire you for. and hey, look, it could just be a two-week little cough or cold for you if you catch it, being immunocompromised and catching covid isn't an immediate death sentence and i apologise if any of this post has frightened you, but i'd rather not chance that shit. over the course of 23 years, 3 additional victims died because of the hilsborough disaster. one a few days later in hospital, one in 1993, and one as recently as 2021. the inquiries by that point were long over, health and safety regulations in stadiums were changed and a good few people lost their jobs at the sun and yet still people are affected by the disaster to this day, not to mention the hundreds of others who may have sustained long term injuries. long after this pandemic is over we will still feel it's effects past the trauma we've all collectively experienced and i have no doubt in my mind that illnesses caused by people catching covid will kill people down the line.

this may not be the most 1-to-1 analogy or the most sensitive one, but i think it's relevant and i think the similarities are there. there's misinformation, disrespect of the dead, blaming of innocent victims to use as scapegoats, police and government negligence - i could probably go on.

all i'm saying is that we've seen this shit before. disabled people have been told to be grateful for the fact that they're the only ones who will die, but i don't feel grateful. members of my family are disabled. some of my closest friends are disabled and immunocompromised and i definitely would not feel grateful seeing them dead or otherwise impaired just so the right dishonorable cuntbag boris johnson doesn't have to resign and admit defeat in front of the nation he's repeatedly failed. he's a fucking clown, and i am wearing my fucking mask.

[bongaboi]

Liverpool: 2019-20 Premier League Champions

30 years of hope: my life as an ardent Liverpool fan

After three decades of near misses, slips and tears, the Merseyside team’s wait for another league title is nearly over. So what does it mean to a scouser and lifelong fan?

by Hannah Jane Parkinson

I am three years old in the photograph, hugging a plastic, flyaway football. I am seven, arriving tentatively for my first training session at a local girls’ club. I am bounding back to my mother’s car, blowing hot breath on cold hands, beaming, the salt from the artificial turf embedded in the soles of my trainers.

I am eight and glued to the television, watching teen wunderkind and my Liverpool hero, Michael Owen, score the perfect goal against Argentina in World Cup 98.

I am nine. I give up one of the few days I have to visit my father to attend my first ever match at Anfield, Liverpool FC’s famous stadium. A week later, my father dies. These two events are inextricably linked in my mind, and the guilt continues to whichever day you are reading this.

I am 10 and make my first appearance in print in a feature for the local paper, the Liverpool Echo, about girls getting into football. I am quoted as saying that all my sister cares about is boys and fashion.

Twelve years old and the fuzzy letters of “Parkinson” on the back of my shirt arch down my shoulder blades.

I am 13. Our team, known as Liverpool Feds, are approached by Liverpool FC to become their official girls’ outfit. We visit Melwood, the first team’s training ground. The full-size goals loom like scaffolding.

I am 14. My hero, Owen, makes the same move to Real Madrid that Steve McManaman made five years before him. This breaks my heart. Suddenly, all I care about is boys and fashion. Without really making a decision, I give up football. Cold winter nights are spent inside on the sofa watching Sex and the City. I discover live music and MySpace.

I am 15. I own the entire range of Clearasil products. A group of my schoolfriends and I take a night off GCSE revision to watch the 2005 European Champions League final in Istanbul; the first the club has reached since the mid-80s, and so it is forbidden not to watch. Liverpool are losing by three goals at half time. A lost cause. Minds wander to the second biology paper… But wait. Liverpool pull back to 3-3. And win on penalties. Pandemonium. We join the throng in the streets; the blaring car horns; the beer jumping, like salmon, from pint glasses; the embrace of strangers; the straining vocal cords.

I am 18 and living in Russia, watching games on my first-generation smartphone via a 2G internet connection. Each time a player goes through on goal the signal drops to endless buffering. Liverpool finish second in the league, four points behind bitter rivals Manchester United.

I am 26, we are bearing down on the title. Steven Gerrard in an impromptu on-pitch team talk, after a crucial win against the newly flush Manchester City, shouts hoarsely at his players: “This does not fucking slip now!” The next home game, Gerrard – one of the best players the club has ever seen, captain, scouser, Liverpool FC lifer – literally slips on the turf against Chelsea to concede a goal. We lose. Manchester City finish top of the league by two points.

I am 29. I am in Cuba, where the internet is heavily censored. But I manage to watch the last game of the season, which will be decisive. Liverpool finish the league with 97 points; the highest points tally ever for a team that doesn’t win the title. City win again. With 98 points. Liverpool do, however, win the Champions League – for the sixth time – after scoring four goals in a sublime semi-final comeback against Barcelona. The injured Mohamed Salah, watching on the bench, wears a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Never Give Up”. The T-shirt sells out.

I am 30. I have never witnessed my beloved Liverpool FC lift the title. Two months from now, this is going to change. As I write Liverpool have a 22-point lead at the top of the table. Of 84 points available this season, they have taken 79. Next Monday is the derby against Everton.

I want to untangle what this will mean to me – the fan who met Steven Gerrard a couple of years ago, grinning like a child; the fan who, two weeks ago, was unbelievably touched when current star Trent Alexander-Arnold recorded a video message to cheer her up during a bad time. What it means to other fans: those who witnessed the dominance of the 1980s, and the younger ones who have known only disappointment. And what it means, too, for the future of the area of Anfield itself.

It’s late February in the Flat Iron pub, one of the many dotted around Anfield. Steve Dodd, who is 49, is with his friends Dan Wynn, 26, and Gerrard Noble, 47. All from Somerset, they are having a pre-match drink before the home game against West Ham. Steve talks of the current Jürgen Klopp-assembled side as the best Liverpool side he thinks he’s ever seen.

The friends have been scouring the internet for places to stay in the city for the last home fixture of the season, but to no avail. “Rooms are going for £400 a night,” Gerrard says, his eyes widening. He and Steve are allowing themselves to get excited, but Dan, who like me has yet to experience a league title win, looks anxious and rubs his thighs. “No,” he says, “I don’t want to jinx it. Though I’ve been kicked out of various WhatsApp groups for being smug about all the results.” Steve tells me they weren’t prepared for it, this three-decade-long wait: “I just thought we’d go on winning.”

We talk about how important it is that Klopp’s politics match the club: Liverpool is a leftwing city; Liverpool is a leftwing club. At the last election, Labour retained all of its 14 MPs on Merseyside. The city has never forgiven the Tories for former chancellor Geoffrey Howe’s strategy of “managed decline”. Thatcher is a hated figure. But so is Derek Hatton, the former city council deputy leader and member of the Marxist group Militant. Last month, Italy’s rightwing politician Matteo Salvini was forced to deny that he had pulled out of a visit to Liverpool after the metropolitan region’s mayor called him a “fascist”. During several games last year, chants rang out for Jeremy Corbyn. The current prime minister conspicuously avoids visiting. As Gareth Robertson, who is a part of the immensely popular The Anfield Wrap podcast, with more than 200,000 weekly downloads in 200 countries, puts it to me: “Not only do we want a good football coach, we expect almost a political leader, someone who gets us, and our city, its values.” Humorously, there have been petitions for Liverpool to become a self-determined scouse state, and “Scouse not English” is a frequent terrace chant.

The club has a mantra: “This means more.” It pisses off other teams and is, understandably, dismissed as marketing speak. But isn’t it true? Isn’t the 127-year-old club what people think of when anyone, anywhere in the world, mentions “Liverpool”? The famous football team that plays in red – allowing for the Beatles, of course.

The city has another team, the blue of Everton. I have nothing against Everton. I consider Everton fellow scousers and too little a threat to focus animosity towards. In a way, the clubs are unruly siblings; we love and scrap in equal measure. Totally different personalities, but born of the same streets.

Four years ago, a man named Jürgen Klopp arrived on these streets. Or more accurately, he arrived in the suburb of Formby, renting the house from his managerial predecessor, Brendan Rodgers. Klopp is the football manager that even non-football fans like. He’s Ludovico Einaudi, seducing those previously uninterested in classical music. He is a man of principle; a baseball cap permanently affixed to his head, as though at any point he might be required to step up to the plate on a blindingly sunny day. Perhaps for the Boston Red Sox, owned by Liverpool FC’s American proprietor, John W Henry.

Klopp is erudite. He is proudly anti-Brexit in a city that voted 58% Remain. “For me, Brexit makes no sense at all,” he has said. He is a socialist: “I am on the left … I believe in the welfare state. I’m not privately insured. I would never vote for a party because they promised to lower the top tax rate. If there’s something I will never do in my life it is vote for the right.” He grew up in a humble village in Germany’s Black Forest, and it shows. There’s a saying in the region: “the hair in the soup”. It means focusing on even the tiniest things that can be improved.

He has the good looks of one of my favourite 1960s Russian film stars, Aleksandr Demyanenko. He hugs his players as though they were the loves of his life and he might never see them again. Journalists like him for his press-conference banter as well as his eloquence. He visits children in hospitals. He is funny. When Mario Götze, one of his star players at former club Borussia Dortmund, left for Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich, his explanation was: “He’s leaving because he’s Guardiola’s favourite. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. I can’t make myself shorter and learn Spanish.”

Liverpool have had many famous managers, of course. Bill Shankly (there’s a statue of him outside the ground); Bob Paisley (ditto); Kenny Dalglish. But Klopp is already being talked of as one of the best ever.

Liverpool the city has evolved from its shamefully prominent role in the slave trade – in common with other major British ports – to a place with a diverse population and a well-won reputation for being friendly and welcoming. But the tragedy and scandal of Hillsborough, in which 96 fans were crushed to death in 1989 at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground, is etched into the nation’s sporting history, and its social justice record. After a 27-year-long battle to clear the names of the Liverpool fans whose reputations were smeared, after inquests that lasted two years – the longest case heard by a jury in British legal history – a verdict of unlawful killing was returned. But, as Margaret Aspinall of the indefatigable Hillsborough Family Support Group pointed out, after David Duckenfield, police commander at the ground, was cleared of manslaughter last year, no one has yet been found accountable for those killings.

The Sun, which categorically did not report “The Truth”, as the infamous headline went, but was found to have published untruths that blamed Liverpool fans for the disaster, is a red-top pariah here. The paper is the bestselling national in print, but shifts a measly 12,000 or so copies on Merseyside. A branch of Sainsbury’s was once found to be selling copies under the counter, as though they were counterfeit cigarettes. It’s a boycott that has lasted longer than many marriages.

The socially progressive values of the club extend to it supporting an end to period poverty – free sanitary products are available in every women’s loo at Anfield. Last month, the Reds Going Green initiative saw the installation of organic machines to break down food waste into water. The club even has its own allotment, which grows food to serve to fans in the main stand. It was the first Premier League club to be officially involved with an LGBT Pride event in 2012, at the invitation of Paul Amann. Amann tells me how he set up the LGBT supporters group, Kop Outs, because: “It’s essential that our voices are heard, our presence is welcomed and respected.” The group works alongside the Spirit of Shankly supporters’ group and the Fans Supporting Foodbanks initiative and has regular meet-ups. These things mean something to me: a football fan as a girl, and now as a woman. A woman who dates other women. A woman who doesn’t want to hear homophobic chants on the terraces. Or, it goes without saying, racist ones. Jamie Carragher, ex-player and pundit, has apologised on behalf of the club for its backing of striker Luis Suárez, who was banned from playing for eight matches in 2011 for making racist comments. “We made a massive mistake,” Carragher said. “What message do you send to the world? Supporting someone being banned because he used some racist words.”

Back on the pitch, some of this season’s performances have been, quite simply, balletic. Others as powerful and muscular as a weightlifting competition. Formations as beautiful as constellations. Forward surges as though our fullbacks were plugged into the mains. Possibly the best fullbacks playing today: 21-year-old local lad Trent Alexander-Arnold (known just as Trent) and the fiery Scot Andy Robertson (Robbo) are spoken about by pundits as innovators. Gary Lineker and I text, rapturously, about the two of them.

For a football team to be consistent, for a team to win the league, it must be capable of winning in many different ways. The aesthetically pleasing playing out from the back. Lightning counter-attacks. Scraping 1-0 wins in the final minutes (and, particularly at the start of this season, we have done a lot of that. It’s something Manchester United used to do in their 90s pomp, and naturally, I hated them for it). Mindful of the trauma of The Slip, the agreed club line is “one game at a time”, said again and again, as another scouse son, Pete Burns, once sang: “like a record baby, right round, round, round… ” And my God, how many of those we’ve smashed. The current side is the first in England to hold an international treble (the Champions League; Uefa Super Cup; Fifa Club World Cup). We have not lost a home game for almost two calendar years. Shortly, we’ll no doubt break the record for the earliest title win during a season; the most points across Europe’s top five leagues.

It is, even to the neutral, extraordinary stuff. It is, even to the haters, albeit grudgingly, extraordinary stuff. In 2016, one of the greatest stories of modern football was the previously mediocre Leicester City winning a surprise title. Liverpool’s dominance this season surpasses that for drama. It is watching history in the present.

Being at a game at Anfield is like being high while ingesting nothing. The stands seem to have lungs. Though You’ll Never Walk Alone has become supremely emotional, an anthem for strength and perseverance post-Hillsborough (“walk on through the wind / walk on through the rain”) it’s a song originally from the musical Carousel. It was a standout 1963 cover version by Liverpudlian band Gerry and the Pacemakers that kicked off its adoption at Anfield. “It’s got a lot of lovely major-to-minor changes at often unexpected moments that have the effect of emotionally blindsiding you,” music journalist Pete Paphides says (although he’s a United fan, so feel free to discount everything he tells me). “But it’s also obviously very hymnal, with a chorus which invites that religious ambiguity. It was Aretha Franklin’s version that John Peel played after Hillsborough and rendered himself incapable of carrying on by virtue of doing so.”

Anfield has always been something special; players from countless teams often talk of it being the greatest ground they have ever played at. Or the most intimidating. Or the most electric. But of late, there’s an extra buoyancy. The crowd salivates.

Watching the game against West Ham, we take the lead within 10 minutes, but they quickly equalise, before going ahead. We score twice more. It is our 21st consecutive home win, setting a Premier League-era record. At the end of the game, Klopp and his players applaud the Kop end, fans’ eyes glistening with both emotion and wind chill (“walk on, through the wind… ”)

Adjacent to the stadium at the redbrick Albert pub, Clara, Tom, John – all in their 20s, students, and local – and John’s dad, David, who is 53, are cheering the last-ditch win. I repeat what I asked Steve and his friends: just how excited should we all be?

“Very fucking excited,” says John. “Very fucking excited,” Tom concurs. (Scousers use swear words as ellipses. And the speed of Liverpudlian patter matches the rat-a-tat-tat of freestyle rappers.) The Albert is floor-to-ceiling in flags; unassuming from the outside, iconic inside. Across the road at the Park – the “Established 1888” sign above its door – it is Where’s Wally? levels of rammed, entirely usual for a match day. But the mood is as disbelieving as triumphant. It hasn’t happened yet, but it already feels as though people are waiting to be shaken awake from a dream. Around the corner, posters at another fan favourite, the Sandon, advertise a huge end-of-season victory party. I grab a burger at the Kop of the Range, a kebab joint not far from a scarf stall that has seen its business rocket over the past three years.

My Uber driver, Mohamed, 35, moved to the city from Sri Lanka. A massive Salah fan, he tells me his own revenue booms when the club win a game – happier fans means higher fares. “People don’t want to spend money on a loss,” he says. “If we win, the whole mood lifts. You can feel it in the car. Though when you start driving with Uber, they tell you not to mention what football team you support. Because football means a lot to people. There are many feelings involved with football.”

It’s unsurprising to me that even back in Sri Lanka, Mohamed was a fan. Liverpool is a global behemoth. The richest club in the UK outside Manchester.

A £1.7bn valuation; £533m turnover; pre-tax profits of £42m. Matchday ticket revenues increased (thanks to a regenerated £110m main stand). Visiting the club shop, there is LFC-branded gin; babygros; even a Hello Kitty tie-in range. As Richard Haigh at consultants Brand Finance tells me, next season’s kit deal with Nike is “expected to represent the largest in history. Brands will be willing to pay to have some magic dust of LFC.” There are official stores as far afield as Dubai and Bangkok.

John W Henry has won the support of the fans for his positive handling of the club. And yet, despite this huge wealth, Anfield is the 10th most deprived neighbourhood in the country. Boarded-up houses surround the stadium. The club has not covered itself in glory in the past, accused of buying up properties in unscrupulous ways. But it is hoped that local enterprises, such as the community-run Homebaked cake shop and new housing association properties, will make the neighbourhood better.

Last week, we were knocked out of the FA Cup in a match against Chelsea. Or, as I call that fixture, Kensington versus Kensington. (In Liverpool’s “Kenny”, 98% of residents are among the most deprived 5% nationally. In London’s, residents earn three times the national average.)

In the league, there has been a blip. Last weekend we finally lost. And we lost 3-0 to, with the greatest respect, Watford; not a bad side, but a side ensconced in a relegation battle. Arsenal, who once went a whole season unbeaten (“the Invincibles”), and are keen to keep that record, tweeted from the official club account: “Phew!”

But I am not panicking. It’s possible Dan from the Flat Iron is panicking. But Klopp isn’t panicking. In typical fashion, he said the fact we played an absolutely awful game of football was “rather positive… ”

“A couple of years ago,” our hero reminds us, “I said we wanted to write our own stories and create our own history, and obviously the boys took what I said really seriously. It is so special. The numbers are incredible.” In a nod to Sir Alex Ferguson’s famous line that his greatest challenge was “knocking Liverpool right off their fucking perch”, Liverpool chief executive Peter Moore says now: “We are back on our perch.” As The Anfield Wrap’s Gareth says: “In a dream scenario, a period of dominance follows. Not so long ago that dream was just that. Now, it’s a reality that is much easier to imagine.”

Four more games. Eyes on the prize. For me, at last, 30 years in the making, eyes on the prize.

[kayjay63]

Man City apologises for fan chants during Hillsborough silence

Man City apologises for fan chants during Hillsborough silence

A crush sooner than the 1989 FA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and Nottingham ended in the deaths of 97 americans…Study More

[snbc]

Man City vs Liverpool: Hillsborough minute’s silence stopped early after crowd disruption at Wembley

Man City vs Liverpool: Hillsborough minute’s silence stopped early after crowd disruption at Wembley

The minute’s silence before Liverpool’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster was stopped early after being disrupted by noise from the Manchester City fans at Wembley. WIth the match taking place one day after 15 April – the date in which a crush on the Leppings Lane led to the death of 97 people the FA Cup semi-final between…

[willsvaem]

Entry 1: Exploration of a negative situation of a sports venue

In 1989 an FA Cup semi-final match was set to take place between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. The events that unfolded during that day would change the way stadiums operate but more consequently, the events resulted in the deaths of 97 people and 766 patrons receiving non-fatal injuries (Britannica, 2022).

Video Below: The video outlines the true devastation of the day including the missteps by the police

On the day of the semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham, many spectators were in no rush to enter the venue thus massive overcrowding at the entry gates 20 minutes before kick-off. The approximate number is debated however it is claimed that over 10,000 patrons were to enter from the Leppings Lane end with over half still yet to enter the venue before kick-off (Britannica, 2022). This was due to how the clash was built up and marketed to be a ‘must-see’ clash, which at the time was smart but ultimately was costly (Smith & Stewart, 2015). 

Fans at the time were described as boisterous and there was a carnival atmosphere to the match (BBC, 2022). In addition, many fans were thought to have been drunk prior to entering the venue Britannica, 2022) thus hinderinig the effectiveness of getting patrons into the stadium safely.

At 2:52pm, just less than 10 minutes before the game was to commence, the entrances to the stadium was packed as were pen 3 and pen 4, the two pens directly behind the goal at the Leppings Lane terrance end (Business Insider, 2016). However, Police made the decision to open up an exit gate which caused a rush to the tunnels and the section behind the goal, pen 3 and 4 (BBC, 2022). A decision that would prove to go against always important contingency plans which are crucial when running such a major event (Saayman, 2012).

Pictured Below: A diagram illustrating the movement of fans however movements from Pen 3 and 4 to their neighbouring pens, never occurred. 

As a result a stampede formed, resulting in a crush which saw the match being postponed only 5 minutes into the game as fans had stumbled onto the pitch via jumping the fence in order to escape injury and death (Business Insider, 2016). 

Pictured Below: Fans being pulled onto the second level to safety out of the crush

In investigations, safety expert John Cutlack revealed how only approximately 650 attendees could stand in pen 3 safely, however sadly and tragically, an estimated 1300 filled the area on the sad day in 1989 (Liverpool Echo, 2014).

Pictured Below: The cramped Pen 3

More recently, the officer in charge of the day David Duckenfield was tried for the manslaughter of 95 individuals, however was found not guilty (ABC, 2019). 

96 people died as a result of the disaster, the oldest 67 and the youngest was only 10 years old (BBC, 2022). This event also marked literal horrible handling of the public and poor public relations (Gunning, 2018).

References

ABC. (2019). Police chief in charge of Hillsborough stadium when 96 Liverpool fans died cleared of manslaughter. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-29/police-chief-found-not-guilty-over-1989-hillsborough-tragedy/11748934. 

BBC. (2022). Hillsborough: Timeline of the 1989 stadium disaster. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-47697569. 

Britannica. (2022). Hillsborough disaster. https://www.britannica.com/event/Hillsborough-disaster. 

Business Insider. (2016). Hillsborough inquest jury finds death of 96 Liverpool fans was an unlawful killing. https://www.businessinsider.com/the-hillsborough-inquest-verdict-4-2016. 

Gunning, E. (2018) .Public Relations a practical approach .(3rd edn.) .Red Globe Press , London.

Liverpool Echo. (2014). Hillsborough pen was at nearly twice the safe capacity when fans died, says expert. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-pen-nearly-twice-safe-7327560. 

Saayman, M. (2012). An introduction to sports tourism and event management. (2nd ed.). Sun Media Metro. 

Smith, A., & Stewart, B. (2015). Introduction to sport marketing (2nd ed.). Routledge

[cricketloversofficial]

Forest to leave 97 seats vacant for Liverpool game to honour Hillsborough victims

Forest to leave 97 seats vacant for Liverpool game to honour Hillsborough victims

Nottingham Forest will leave 97 seats vacant when it hosts Liverpool in Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final to honour the fans who died at the Hillsborough Stadium in April 1989 when the two sides last met in the competition. Ninety-four Liverpool supporters were crushed to death in an over-crowded and fenced-in enclosure at the stadium in Sheffield before an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and…

[blogmillymills]

Anne: One mother's story.

Anne: One mother’s story.

A British four-part drama revolving around the 1989 Hillsborough football disaster of 1989, where a human crush resulted in the deaths of 97 Liverpool football club fans. It’s the story of  campaigner Anne Williams’ battle for justice for her son Kevin, who died at the disaster. To this day, almost 33 years later, no one has been held accountable for this disaster and subsequent cover-ups. 

[khiw0001]

Liverpool vs Shrewsbury: Group of Shrews fans condemned after reports of 'vile' chants about Hillsborough disaster

Shrewsbury Town have condemned a small number of their fans for allegedly singing "vile and offensive" chants in Liverpool on Sunday.

Videos have emerged on social media appearing to show a group of Town fans singing a song about the 1989 Hillsborough disaster which caused the deaths of 97 Liverpool supporters.

The League One club said in a statement: "Shrewsbury Town Football Club is disgusted and appalled to see and hear the reports on social media about the vile and offensive chanting and behaviour of a very small minority of our 'supporters' yesterday.<!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->สล็อตเว็บตรงไม่ผ่านเอเย่นต์

[justinssportscorner]

The Guardian: 

Clubs in the Premier League and Championship will be able to offer licensed standing areas from 1 January as part of a pilot programme. The Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) set out the plans in a statement on Wednesday.

The introduction of designated safe standing areas would mean an end to the blanket ban on standing in the top two divisions of English football, which has been in place for more than 25 years. Clubs must apply to be part of the “early adopter” programme by 6 October and, if approved, will be able to operate a licensed standing area from New Year’s Day until the end of the season.

The SGSA said the project would be independently evaluated, with all other areas of grounds remaining all-seater. Standing areas in what is now the Premier League and Championship were outlawed by legislation passed in the wake of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, which led to the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans.

The introduction of the licensed standing areas follows a commitment by the government in its 2019 General Election manifesto and it is a move that has cross-party support.

The Sports minister, Nigel Huddleston, said: “We have been clear that we will work with fans and clubs towards introducing safe standing at football grounds providing there was evidence that installing seating with barriers would have a positive impact on crowd safety.

“With independent research now complete, and capacity crowds back at grounds across the country, now is the right time to make progress. I look forward to hearing from clubs who wish to be part of our early adopters programme during the second half of this season.”

Clubs must meet a range of criteria in order to gain approval. These include having the necessary infrastructure in home and away areas, allowing fans to sit or stand in the standing areas with the seats not locked in the up or down position, ensuring the areas do not affect the view for other fans including those with disabilities, providing a code of conduct for standing fans and consulting with the relevant Safety Advisory Group.

[...]

The announcement affects clubs subject to the government’s all-seater policy. That includes clubs in the Premier League and Championship, or any club who have been in those divisions for three or more seasons since 1994-95, plus Wembley Stadium and the Principality Stadium.

For the first time since the Taylor Report came into force, safe standing areas will be permitted at the grounds of England's top 2 levels of footy (Premier League and Championship) come January.